


Put granny into the freezer

by Alle__Panda



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: "Metti la nonna in Freezer" an Italian movie, A lot of fun (or so I hope), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Conversations, Awkward Romance, Awkward Sexual Situations, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Ben Solo is an awkward police officer who's really bad at flirting, Ben Solo lives for his work, Black Comedy, Comedy, Dating, F/M, Finn and Rose are good friends but they are a little creazy and desperate too, His friends are eager to help him, I know it sounds strange but there will be fun, It is a romantic comedy, Leia is a desperate granny eager to help her grand daughter in any way possible, Poe and the black squadron are dreaming about holiday, Rey Needs A Hug, Rey is an artist who struggles to live, Romantic Comedy, There is also a little of angst, There isn't any murder here, There isn't any murderer or assassin. Nothing at all!, There would be romance, This is going to be crazy and funny, This is not my idea, This story takes place in Italy, Until he meets Rey, a little smut, a lot of fluff, alternative universe, relationship, there would be awkward moments and also awkward kisses and smut, this is the plot of a movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2019-07-24 16:46:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 60,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16179134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alle__Panda/pseuds/Alle__Panda
Summary: Ben is a young police officer. He is very lonely and he lives only for his job  trying to impress his boss Snoke, while his rival number one, Hux, always tryes to steal him his rewards for his hard work. One day one of his collegues decides that it is time for him to change and he offeres to help him to ask out a nice girl named Rey Organa. But what happens when you find out that the girl you have feelings for hides a terrible secret?.............................."And so she had no choice.On one side there was the abyss, the jail.On the other a very bad memory that she would have tried to forget for the rest of her life…her free life…She was going to do this! For her friends. Finn and Rose really didn’t deserve to go to jail too. Not because of her fault.And so, Rey did the only thing she could do in that moment.She looked at him right into his black eyes for a long moment returning his gaze and then she kissed Ben Solo on the mouth"..................Or When Poe Dameron decided to help his boss Ben to get drunk and ask out a cute girl just in order to get more holidays.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [slinden](https://archiveofourown.org/users/slinden/gifts).



> This idea comes directly from an Italian movie: “Metti la nonna in freezer” alias “Put granny into the freezer”. It is a ROMANTIC COMEDY. I liked the movie very much and so I had to write this! Expecially because you probably know nothing about this movie, and it is a rare example of funny and romantic plot and more over the star wars characters are going to fit perfectly into the plot. Adam Driver would have fit wery well in this role too. Someone could tell that this is a black comedy or balck humor... And Indeed it is, but the story is sweet and funny and not creepy at all, believe me :* Kisses

 

 

The Church was barely full, just the two first lines had people seated in front of the altar, and the silence sounded deep embarrassing. Until the music coming from the pipe organ, started to play the nuptial march. Without that, nobody would have guessed what was going to happen down there.

The atmosphere resembled much more the one of a funeral. The music ended and the priest, a strange, tall and unusually younger one, with black thick hair and deep sad eyes, started to speak to the bride and groom standing in front of him. I said standing, just as a way of saying, because it was a matter of fact that the bride hadn’t been capable to stand on her own legs since the 1990s or so. She was sitting on a chair with wheel, breathing hard into a mask, while the tank of the oxygen near her right leg seemed dangerously to the point of reaching the lower notch on the indicator.

Her white and fragile hair had been braided upon her head but she wasn’t wearing the usual white dress that brides wears the day of their marriage. Instead, an old wool jacket was covering her hunched shoulders while her thick glasses seemed to fall slightly towards the tip of her nose. For a while the young priest thought that she should have fall asleep because she had started to sneeze, but then he coughed strongly a couple of times and she seemed to woke up. The priest rolled his eyes.

The far more younger boy at her left, dressed in a black suit with a white rose on the small pocket of his new jacket, turned towards the old lady he was going to marry and smiled at her with a wide grin. At this point Ben, was already feeling sick about the whole thing, but he knew that he needed more time. The documents hadn’t arrived yet.

He swallowed hard and continued with his speech about eternal love and all the other silly, stupid things that you say when you are pretending to be a priest to the point to marry a couple at the presence of the Lord. How had his life gone this way? When he graduated at the University, after five years of deep and intense studies in the Law matter, he wouldn’t have imagined that his life would have bring him to this moment… The Guardia di Finanza, the special bureau of the police of the State, had never been his first thought after his graduation. Ben Solo wanted to become a lawyer and so he tried, year after year to pass the examination to became one, but every time there was something wrong about him or his answers at the oral test.

And not being payed, even when you work at least 12 hours in a day, at the age of 26, wasn’t acceptable anymore. So when the occasion came to try to enter in the police department for tax collecting, Ben Solo had been eager to finally receive a reward for his hard work. And soon he also discovered that he was good at that. Unmask thiefs and profiteers made him feel really proud of himself.

Maybe even too much, because at the age of 29, he was already the boss of several other police officers of the GF. His life was just work and career, because he wasn’t the kind of man who can easily make friends or dates with girls.

And so, action after action, he was really dedicating his life to his job, finding always the strangest ways to achieve his goals. And awkward or weird it could be being dressed like a priest, he was just doing his job, helping that poor old lady not to marry that young gold digger boy who wanted to put his hands on her good and nothing more. Ben just needed to wait for the signal.

“Roger. The documents are here. Proceed” said the voice of his boss, Snoke, into his auricular. And so Ben Solo finally could stop the mise-en-scene and addressing the young boy declared: “I, Ben designated Solo, with the power confer by the Guardia di Finanza, I declare you under arrest!”.

And saying so he finally get out of his disguise as soon as he could. But in the meantime the young bridegroom was already running to the exit of the church. In that moment, Phasma, one of Hux’s boys pounced on him and in the blink of an eye, she had already arrested him. Then a thin man with red hair and blue eyes entered the room with rapid steps.

“Well done, Phasma” he said to the woman who had assaulted the young man , then he turned towards him

“Sorry Solo, as usual you are too late!” Hux said with a smirk while the First Order, his squadron composed by his subordinates, was already bringing the young man away. “Ehi! This is my operation, not yours!” Ben growled in response with frustration, still struggling to get off the dress.

“Where is black squadron? Dameron can you hear me?” he barked into the transmitter, but his boys had been already dismissed by Hux’s ones. “Sorry boss, but Hux’s is Snoke’s nephew, you know how it works…” his man, Dameron, answered with a mournful voice, speaking in the comm. At that Ben growled in frustration.

Yes, he perfectly knew how nepotism worked, but in the in the last three mounts, Hux had already stole at him the reward for at least ten or twelve cases he had worked on. And when’s too much, it’s too much! This time he wouldn’t have simply bite at his tongue to stay silent. “Not at all jerk! I was the one who organized the entire maneuver, without my idea this old lady would have….” But Hux waved at him with his black glowed hand to tell him that he could already stop his blabbering.

“Keep quiet Solo! I am the nephew of the boss. If I were you I would be really careful with words” and then he smiled widely while the troops of reporters he had hired for the occasion entered the church with their cameras. Ben couldn’t really believe at his eyes. But then they started to make photos to Hux and Phasma and then they started to ask him some questions.

“Mr. Hux can you tell us about the way you had directed the whole operation? You had just unmasked the gold digger who had already married five old ladyes to the edge of death with the only purpose to enrich, are you proud of yourself?” the reporters asked. “Of course I am…” Hux started to answer, pompous as ever, before starting to explain the details as if he had been the one organizing the whole thing.

So when Ben went outside there was a feral expression on his face. He was already cursing at the wind when his men arrived. Dameron and the others of the Black Squadron were the thing as much near to the concept of family he had ever known. As usual they were waiting for him for instructions.

Poe, Jessika and Snap were always there with him after days like that. So in the same moment he reached for his collegues , Ben asked them the same thing he was used to ask in those occasions:

“Do you wanna go out for a pizza after work? Because I know a place…”. And usually they agreed and go with him, eager to talk about their next operation to unmask other bad people. But this time, Ben could clearly tell from the expression plastered on their faces that they didn’t seem happy to accept his offer. “It’s about the fact that Hux took all the reward? I know it can be frustrating but..” he started but then Dameron step in. “it’s not because of that boss” he said putting one hand into his shoulder.

“I am sorry about the operation. We know that you did your best. But you know, we have been working on that case for hours in this office and after having dinner outside for the last three days also…”.

When he didn’t seem to know how to continue Jessika started to speak for herself. “I have a family at home” she said with a hint of fear into her voice, but clearly much more tired to accomplish his boss desires than anything else. At that Ben’s eyes widened in surprise. “Yeah man, I haven’t seen my girlfriend in a week and I am afraid she’s going to kick me out of our apartment if I don’t come back for dinner even this evening. She doesn't believe I am doing all of this extra hours at work" Snap balmed. "Even not payed”added Poe at this point.

“Sorry Solo, but my daughter has a cold and I can’t really stay out till late for tonight” Jessika agreed with a sad smile. “But we have a lot of work to do” Ben suddenly retorted, a hint to desperation into his voice. He really didn’t want to go home alone, into that little and cold apartment, eating something by himself and thinking about how much his life sucked.

“There is this association of false invalids, who pretends to be blind and steal from the treasury a big amount of money every month and…We should really discuss about the next blitz around a table before Hux could get his hands on the case first! I’ll call the restaurant to make a reservation…The food isn't too good but the owner release the regular invoice”. And so his collegues groaned loudly at him with resignation, while the young agent of the Guardia di Finanza, was talking into his I-phone with the owner of the restaurant.

“Why don’t he have a real life? What’s the problem with him?” asked Jessika whispering into Poe’s ear.

“You know, he lives for his job” Poe answered. “He doesn’t have anything else in his life”

“Yeah, I don’t even remember the last time he took a day to stay home. Did you know that he works even on Sunday and during holidays?” Jessica added. “For real? I don’t know you but, in my opinion he needs just to find someone to fuck” Snap said then in a bitter voice.

“Ehi, why don’t we try to introduce someone to him? Maybe some cute girl he could fuck as he wants? This way I would finally obtain some vacations to stay with my children. It’s been a while since the last time I spent some time with them” Jessica proposed.

“Nah, he is not the type to fuck a girl not caring about her. I have already tried and it didn’t go very well” Poe confessed “He’s the kind of man who wants to fall in love, but now he doen't even seems interested to try”

“I see, but why? He is young and tall and…Yeah, his nose it could be a important but, did you look at his shoulders? He’s always at the gym and when he wears those tight shirts under the jacket you can see his muscular body greeting you as if he was a wonderful cake for your birthday” Jessica commented, her voice dreamy.

“Wow… I didn’t know you had a crush for our boss” Poe commented with a laugh. At that Jessica’s face turned completely red but she answered quietly: “I am married, I am not dead. I was just curious to know why he doesn’t seems interested to find someone…”. So Poe sighed and then he explained.

“Once he had a girlfriend, when he was at University. He told me during one of our first night together during the first undercover operation against those palm readers”.

At that Jessica and Snap looked at him in bewilderment.

“Tell us more, please!” they begged. “I don’t know very much, but if I remember well he told me that at that time he was a totally different person…” Poe huffed in frustration looking at the looming figure walking backwards and forward in the middle of the street in front of their office.

“Yes please, the room on the left, because I don’t like to stay near to the one who smokes on the doorway” Ben was saying at the phone. A frustrated tone into his deep voice. "No, there is no need to aswer that way, I am completely calm sir..." the angry tone unmistakable.

And hearing him like that they both sighed.

“Then what happened?” Snap asked with increasing interest.

“It’s a long story. Anyway that girl broke his hearth and since that day he had lived for his job and nothing more. But I agree, we should do something about it. We can’t go on this way anymore…”

“Yes, but what are we going to do? Did you look at him? He is always grumpy and he talks about law and rules all the time…How can we find a cute girl who can be still interested in him after the moment he opens his mouth?” the two asked at Poe with expectation. It was notorious that Poe had a long experience with the girls.

“I don’t know, but let me think about something. I’ll figured it out” he said. And then the four of them went out to eat pizza together. Again.

 

……………………………………………………

 

Rey was almost desperate. This month she should have received the loan for the business she had started with the help of his best friends Finn and Rose, but the state was late with the payment. She had the right to have those money back. Her activity with “Belle arti” was protected by the law.

Her activity of restoration of ancient art work should have been supported by the state, as if they had promised. Instead, it was now a matter of fact that it wasn’t. The young girl put the keys of her car on the little table in the entrance of her house. Her friends were already in the living room waiting for her and for the good news.

Unless, there wasn’t any good news to tell them. Finn was the fist who acknowledged about it. Just looking at her face he could already tell that the situation was very bad. “I am sorry” Rey almost cried, her eyes puffy and red

“They say that we have to wait for another year before they can give us the loan. We are in bankruptcy. I have already bought a lot of instruments and reserved the space of the garage for the next six months, and…I really don’t know how we are going to pay for all of that, without that loan” she explained.

“Oh peanut, come here!” Finn answered opening his arms to embrace her tightly.

“But it’s not fair!” Rose suddenly protested,

“You obtained the authorization and they had promised that you would have received the loan for this month. It is your right!” she complained. “Tell to those who works at the bureau! They really doesn’t care!” Rey replied with anger, letting go from his friend.

“But…If it wasn’t for your granny Leia, you couldn’t even pay us the salary. In the last few mouths you used her retirement to pay everything!” “I know Rose, I know” Rey answered disconsolate.

At that, the old lady came in into the room. Despite the age, she was still a wonderful woman, always dressed like a princess, with his gray hair combed in a chignon and a red lipstick on her lips. She greeted them with a sad smile, her eyes knowing. “I am sorry dear” Leia said to her granddaughter.

“I really hoped that this time you would be able to obtain that loan. If I could I would give you everything, but I am old and the only thing I have got is my monthly retirement… I am sorry” she said. At that Rey started to cry even louder.

“Please granny, don’t say that. You are doing even too much for me. You are my only family and I am ashamed to ask you to help me this way…But I thought…” she cried hurrying to embrace her granny.

“Oh Rey. Sweetheart. I am so sorry that your parents left you when you were only a child. My daughter had never been the motherly kind anyway…But I feel guilty, and I swear you…it’s a pleasure for me to help you. You have grown beautiful and strong and I am really proud of you dear!” saying so Leia hugged her even tightly, while Finn and Rose sighed heavily, their faces mournful.

They left Rey’s and Leia’s house after a few minutes, letting their friend and business partner to her own thoughts with the promise that they would have found out a solution together.

“You don’t have to give up on your dreams so easily dear…” Leia said to Rey that night.

“Tomorrow I want you to go to the bureau office to ask them why isn’t the loan arrived yet. Everything will be all right Rey. Just promise me, you will never give up” she asked her kissing her forehead before to go to bed. “I promise, granny. I love you”

……………………………………………………..

 

The next day Ben Solo was deeply busy trying to unmask a public officer who worked at the boureau who was suspected of misappropriation. The only thing that he needed to accuse him, was the concrete proof that he used to ask money or favors to the people who went to his office to receive something he should have give them for free, because it was his duty as an officer. This time Ben have only to wait patiently in a near room.

The bugs would have done their job, he only have to wait to hear him admit his crime. Hoping that that bastard of Hux wouldn’t have been there too to steal the result of his hard job

. ……………………………………………………

 

This time Rey was determined to go to the bottom of the matter. She didn’t have any other option. Her granny Leia and even her friends were counting on her. They needed that loan and they had the right to obtain it. So when she entered the little room and was greeted to that slimy little man with his lustful gaze, she didn’t falter and went straight to the point. “I need that loan. The state promised me one year ago. I can’t wait for another year, I have already started the business and…” But she wasn’t already half of her speech that the man, Hunkar Plutt, was already laughing at her.

“Oh Miss Organa, you are a silly funny girl if you think that you can simply come here, ask for whatever the hell you need, and obtain it so easily” he mocked her. Rey remained silent for a while.

“What else I am I supposed to do then?” she asked with frustration.

“This is the right place, isn’t it?” At that Plutt’s grin widened.

“Yes, it is. And I confess to you, that my office is the only one that regards this kind of matter…So I suggest you to be very kind to me, child” and saying so he liked at his lips with his horrible serpentine tongue making Rey shiver.

“What do you mean? What I have to do to obtain the loan?” After her question Plutt’s eyes narrowed. He pointed to a pile of documents upon his desk with a savage grin still plastered into his face.

“Do you know what is this, dear? This is the list of the people who gave me something to obtain the loan for their own interests. Your documents are right here” and so he indicated at the bottom of a great amount of papers.

“If you want I can put those documents on top of the others, so you will receive the loan, maybe in the next few months, but you have to give me a favour…” Rey’s mouth went dry in an instant. She wasn’t prepared to such kind of conversation. Was it really happening? She was pretty sure that Plutt’s behavior was kind of illegal, but she didn’t know how to answer him, so she remained silent, waiting for him to ask her whatever he wanted in exchange.

“You are in the business of “Belle arti”, right?” Plutt said “You know, my wife has always dreamed to have a bathroom made with a mosaic covering the walls. Maybe you could come at my home and renew the whole room…Of course for free…Then we could speak about the loan!” he concluded with a spark of pure connivance into his eyes. Rey felt immediately sick. How was she supposed to do that? She wasn’t a bricklayer or something like that.

She repaired art works and of course she couldn’t pay for a mosaic bathroom. She came there just for that reason, she didn’t have any money! Suddenly anger took advantage on her.

“Are you kidding me? I am not going to renew your stupid bathroom! I am here for my loan, I have the right to…” she protested, and in that same moment the door of the office went open wide and a group of people wearing some uniforms, stormed inside.

“Guardia di Finanza! You are under arrest for embezzelment!” Immediately Rey saw Plutt’s face became pale. The little filthy man reached for her document like a thunder, and started to write his signature at the bottom.

“I don’t know what are you talking about, I was just to the point to sign this document for this young lady” Rey’s mouth fell open. She couldn’t believe at her eyes. Plutt was about to finish the signature when a tall man arrived and tear away the document from his hands, right a moment before Rey could bring it into her hands.

“Ehi, what are you doing?” she suddenly complained.

“That is my loan! I need it” and then she turned towards him expecting to find some old police officer. When she found a young, handsmom guy instead, she remained still because of the surprise. He was really gorgeous with his long hair and those broad shoulders of his, but then Rey had to come back to reality because he really seemed not intentioned to let go from her documents.

“This is the proof of his crime right now. I can’t let you keep it, I am sorry miss…”

“Rey. I am Rey Organa and I am not going home without that piece of paper!” In the meantime they were arguing about the documents, Plutt had menaged to escape, screaming that he was going to call for his lawyer.

But Poe Dameron couldn’t simply let him run away and so he jumped on him like a fury, not before that Phasma and Hux stromed into the room at his heels. “Oh no. I can’t believe it! Solo we have a problem here!” Poe Dameron screamed at his boss with urgency into his voice.

 

Meanwhile, Ben was occupied with this strangely stubborn young girl, too fizzy about the operation to really pay attention to her. “Let go of the document I said! This is an operation of the Guardia di Finanza. Now I command you to let go of the paper!” he screamed. Rey was about to retort with something when the unexpected happened. Dameron and Phasma hit against a great column in the office of the ugly man who was trying to escape from their grasp.

A giant armor in the Middle Ages style, crushed upon them without any advice and Ben had merely the time to pull Rey away before the whole heavy thing could crushed against his head. It make him stumble backside towards the door, and then the staircase, until the rumble of his fall became nothing more than a terrible silence broken only by Ben’s moans of distress.

……………………………………………

 

A few hours later Rey was attending at the entrance of Ben’s room at the local hospital. She couldn’t really believe at what was already happened. The man seemed really in a bad state, because when she go to him he spoke with her blubbering in a silly way but his mood, she noticed, had at least improved.

Rey saw him smiling at her, repeatedly and he also continued to apologize with her about his behavior. She found herself relieved that he didn’t want to proceed against her as she had imagined in the first place, fearing that he could consider her responsible for his injuries. Unfortunately, about her precious loan, he said that he couldn’t really do anything about it. There was an investigation in progress and so she wouldn’t have obtained her loan before an year or maybe even more, because the process against Unkar Plutt may took even more time. At that Rey found herself desperate.

“I am sorry Rey, but I can’t really help you. The law is clear about it” he explained “the only thing I can assure you is that people like him are going to receive what they deserve after a fair trial. By the way I am glad you didn’t accomplish his request. You are a honest contributor” he said then with a very dummy face, probably because of the medicines he had been under to soothe the pain. He was smiling at her so widely that she was starting to feel really uncomfortable.

Even because she was feeling destroyed about the situation. She was going to lose everything and she really didn’t know how to tell that to her granny or her dear friends.

So Rey sheepish smiled back at Ben, sadly, and then she finally went home.

………………………………………………..

During that afternoon Leia had felt that something was wrong with her. She could tell that with certainty, even if doctor Holdo that had come to her house to see her, said that she was perfectly well and healthy. Leia knew that she was dying. So when Rey came home for the second time in two days, with tears in her eyes, something within her broke even more. She felt sorry for her, because she knew that her poor child was struggling to go on with her life even with her help.

So Leia couldn’t really think at what would have been of Rey if she had to leave her alone just in the worst of the moments. But despite all of her preoccupations for herself and for Rey too, she had to act strongly as ever, not showing her true fears, like she had ever done during her life.

“So, what happened at the office dear?” Leia finally asked, thinking to know the answer already. But what her granddaughter tell her about her day wasn’t really something predictable. It was even worse than her biggest fears. So after they had dinner together, before to go to bed, Leia came to Rey’s room to talk with her about something.

“Dear, I want you to know that I love you so much” she said probably stopping her crying.

The young girl turned towards her leaving her wet pillow, her face full of tears.

“I love you too granny…but maybe it's time for me to give up on that stupid dream and find a real job to repay the bills and...” she murmured between a sniffle and a sob. And when her granny seated near her on the edge of her bed, lulling her like when she was a child, murmuring other sweet words, Rey finally felt the tiredness taking advantage on her. Leia soothed her pain brushing her hands upon her back, slowly and lovingly.

“Don't be silly Rey. I want you to follow your dreams. And much more important, you are the kindest of the granddaughters. You know that, right?” Leia asked in a tender voice.

“I would give you everything if I only could…everything. My dear…But I am really afraid that at this point I can’t do much more for you…I just wish I could” she said. “You are here” Rey answered lovingly “for me it’s enough”. But suddenly Leia had a sad expression on her face.

“Yes, and I whish I could stay forever with you honey, but I am afraid that I will not be here for more…And I am afraid because without me, in this moment, I don’t know how could you menage to live and also pay your friends and…” but at this point, Rey had already fallen asleep. “Goodnight dear Rey. I will always be with you dear, always” Leia murmured at her ear.

Then she reached for her own room. And after she fell asleep she didn’t ever wake up.

 

To be continued...

 


	2. Chapter 2

“Sir you have got a commotion! You can’t stand right now! Please lay down and get some rest!” the nurse asked at the tall man with the grumpy face.

“I am perfectly well right now, I have got a lot of work to do, there is no time to waste!” Ben answered dryly trying to redress himself with his uniform under the stunned glance of the nurse.

“Whatever, it can’t be as important as your health!” the mid-age lady answered him with insistence.

“I don’t care, I am coming back to my office right now! Because while we are talking there is a recommended guy who’s trying to kick me out stealing my job!” he barked with a harsh voice. At that, the nurse looked at his face with pity and then let him sign the paper for his discharge and go away letting out a loud sigh.

…………………………………………………..

That same evening, at nine o’clock as usual, The Black squadron was sitting at a table in a restaurant and Ben Solo was planning his next blitz against the association of false blind people he had heard about.

“Yeah…Could you believe that our country is the first in Europe with the major number of false invalid who steal from the aerarium?” he was telling them with zeal. “It our duty to change this tide! We want a country free from this kind of crooks and cheaters. We deserve something better!” he said. “Of course boss, I agree” Poe answered with a tired smile looking at the others in surrender.

“But, don’t you think you are a little too rigid about it? I mean…Sometimes there is no need to be so rigorous” At his statement, Ben almost chocked with his food

“I don’t want to hear this bull shit Poe! I am tired to listen to people who says: I was only trying to feed my children; or, I was only helping a friend with his documents; I was only making a favor to my cousin because we are a family; I was only… That’s exactly why this country is a complete mess! You start with a little only and a little violation, and then you can’t stop do it anymore! I can’t really understand why they all use the same excuse in the moment we arrest them! Can’t you find a way to feed your children without breaking the law?” he complained. “That’s incredible!”

…………………………………………………………………

Meanwhile Rey was living a nightmare with her eyes wide open. Her beloved granny Leia had just passed away letting her completely alone and without any means of sustenance. Rey’s mind was spinning. With trembling hands she called for Finn and Rose asking for their support. Fortunately, in the blink of an eyes, their friends were right there at her home.

The both of them stunned to the bones and completely schoked and speechless just like Rey herself. Because Leia seemed to be perfectly healthy until the day before. And the three of them were deeply affectionate to the old lady who was ever so gentle and kind, with a strong spirit and a lovable personality. And so at the young age of 23 years old, for the first time, Rey found herself as a real orphan. And nobody would have ever loved her so much as Leia did.

………………………………………………..

After the first hours, during which both Rey and Rose had cried very much, nestled into each other’s arms, still struggling to believe that Leia was really dead, Finn was the one who firstly get the courage to talk about what was going to happen next.

“I am sorry peanut…I am really sorry for your loss. But, you know that you have got me and Rose, right? We are your family now. We are so much more than just colleagues. Anyway now I suggest to talk about what is going to happen. You already start with your new business in the restore of the ancient works. And now we have just to…”

“There isn’t any business anymore Finn” Rose stepped in with tears into her eyes “Rey didn’t get the loan they had promised and we can’t wait a whole year without being payed. She used to pay us with the retirement of her granny, so now…It’s like we have lost more than our beloved friend. We also lost our job. All of us…” she explained.

At that Finn swallowed hard, an expression of pure terror into his eyes. He looked at Rey with hope, wishing to hear her say something positive to contradict what Rose had just said. But when he saw Rey starting to whine frantically and sobbing like he had never seen her before, he had to face the reality. They were all swimming in a sea made of shit!

“It’s not fair that you have to go bankrupt because the state doesn’t give you that loan! You had rightfully obtained it, and now they ask us to wait for another year. But we can’t wait for a bank transfer from Saturn in the 2051. We are going to go bankrupt right now…” Rose cried with anger “and after all our investments…Oh we really needed our month salary. At least, with that we could have managed to go on for some other months in a way or another…And maybe after the first commissions…But now…”. In that same moment, Finn said something crazy.

“You know… I have heard about someone who had managed to collect the money of the retirement of their dead parents somehow…” he said. “Really?” the two girls asked in the same moment with hope, their eyes sparkling with tears.

“And where shall I ask to obtain that authorization?” Rey rushed to demand. At that Finn exhaled sharply, his eyes serious.

“That’s the point peanut… You can’t do this thanks to an authorization…You get it?” As soon as Rey realized what his friend was trying to tell her, a rush of anger caught her whole being.

“Finn! My lovely grand mother Leia, the one who used to tell me that you were such a good guy…. the person that I loved much than anyone else in my whole existence… She’s just dead!...And now, you are asking me to… to… I don’t even wanna think about what you had just proposed! I can’t believe you!” she screamed, tears still dropping down her tormented face.

“Ehi ehi… I didn’t proposed anything! I was just…suggesting other options to avoid the bankrupt and also avoid to lose what we have worked for in the last few years of our lives!”

“What option?” Rose asked a little dizzy, not truly aware of the turn that their conversation had took. At that Rey sniffed heavily and then answered to her: “he wants to keep my granny’s death as a secret! So we can continue to receive the money of her retirement every month as if she wasn’t dead at all…I am right?” she asked then to Finn still angry. When her friend nodded with his head, Rey sighed in frustration.

“Finn!” Rose yelled. And for a while even Rose sounded deeply scandalized about Finn’s idea. So much that Finn would have been more pleased to stay in a pool full of giant piranha instead of sitting on the couch of Rey’s living room under the hatred gazes of the two girls. But then even Rose’s face softened a bit when she started to think about all the shit they were going to face from that moment onward. She sighed painfully and then looked at Rey with her sad eyes.

“Even if…for a while, you know...I really thought that we could have made it…Our dream. It was almost in our grasp, just a few inches ahead and…Anyway, just yesterday Leia told you the same thing. She wanted you to be happy, she wanted you not to give up about your dream” she turned towards Rey with a hopeful gaze that spoke about danger. Then Finn seemed to seize the moment.

“Yeah, I heard her too. Leia would have been okay with this…And much more important, it won’t be forever. Just the time necessary to obtain that damn loan…to be able to walk on our own legs”

“Yes, but this way I doubt that we could make her the funeral. Nobody has to know about this” Rose went on for him.

“What? For real? What are you suggesting then? To keep her closed in an wardrobe or under the bed…This sounds crazy!” Rey suddenly retorted, her voice sharp and almost frantic.

“The freezer!” Finn finally said.

“What?” Rey asked turning towards him. "Can you repeat please?" “Put granny into the freezer. Then when the moment will come, we’ll say to the doctor that she’s just dead…The cold will help to keep the body intact…” he explained. When both Rey and Rose looked at him in shock Finn shrugged and then answered “I told you that I have heard about someone who had done this before…” he tried to shield himself. And so, under the thirsty gazes of her two collegues and also best friends, Rey found herself yelling:

“I AM NOT GOING TO PUT MY GRANNY INTO THE FREEZER! NEVER! This is my last decision!” But then the first call arrived. It was completely unexpected and in that moment it came like a thunder in a sunny day. Some little museums in the nearness had heard about their new business and they wanted to commission to them some restores.

In that same moment Rey felt her belly ache, her mind fuzzy.

“Miss Rey Organa? So are you positive about the job? Hello?” called the voice from the other side of the line. Finn and Rose were looking at her with their eyes wide open. At that Rey’s breath had already hitched and her mouth was completely dry. “This is our great chance peanut…” Finn murmured to her squeezing her hand strongly.

“She would have wanted you to say yes, you know that. She would have wanted you to be happy”. At that Rey looked at him into his brown eyes and said: “I know you are saying so just because you don’t want to lose your job. And I am scared too…And it is completely comprehensible…Really...” but then she looked at Rose, her puffy eyes were red and full of tears just like her own.

Rey felt so tired and for a while she tried to imagine what her life would have been like if only her parents didn’t abandon her with her granny when she was only a child. Then she remembered Leia’s words of encouragement and after a deep, really deep breath, she finally took her decision. “I accept the job!” she said into her cell phone. And so the dice had been thrown.

………………………………………………………

When the black squadron had been put at work on Saturday morning, that first week, nobody had really complained too much about it. It was an exception, due to the fact that their boss seemed really obsessed about the idea to beat Hux and the First Order in every single way.

Between the two bosses in fact, there was already a deep rivalry to succeed in the purpose to accomplish the supreme boss Snoke. And at the beginning even Poe had been enthusiastic about the idea to show him how much capable their men were despite the one of the first order. But then, even the next week he had found himself at work on Saturday morning and then even the next one and the one after that.

Not to talk about the fact that their boss wanted to have dinner with them every single time. No matter whatever responsibility they had towards their own families. Ben Solo demanded them to stay and so they stayed. Practically their boss had become a real pain in the ass and so they really, truly had to find a solution to go back to normality. And maybe this time, Poe knew what he had to do.

………………………………………….

 

“Ehi Solo. It’s already nine o’clock and it’s Saturday so…I was wondering…”

“Of course, we can go out for a pizza! Good idea! So then we can finish the arrangement for our next blitz in that fake old age home I was talking about to you this morning” his boss smiled at him with a hint of contentment. And it was the first time in days that Poe finally saw him with a different expression on his face apart his usual annoyed one.

“To be honest I would have suggest something different this time. You know…it’s Jessika birthday and so I thought we could go somewhere else. We can discuss about the blitz on Monday morning, can you come with us?” At that a strange strangled sound escaped from Ben’s mouth.

“Of course I am coming” he said in a really acute voice that spoke even too loud about his distress in having his plans messed up. Twenty minutes later, Ben Solo was already regretting his choice.

Poe Dameron had brought the whole black squadron in a pub full of beer and super cocktails. He didn’t really want to drink anything but then Poe started to order glasses of beer for everyone and in a few minutes Ben found himself completely isolated from the rest of the group. Looking at his colleagues speaking and laughing to each other Ben felt even much lonely then usual and for a while his mind came back to the incident at the bureau office.

The day when he met her. Because yes, he didn’t really know why or how, but his heart had lost a bit in the same moment his eyes had opened to take in her beautiful features. And he had felt a complete idiot with that stupid medieval helmet covering his head. Her wonderful hazel eyes looking at him with apprehension.

Then his mind had gone completely blank. One moment he was about to reach his goal and arrest that filthy homunculus, and the moment later he was laying on the floor, looking at the ceiling, the alarm of the ambulance ringing in the background, while her sweet, mild voice was asking for his forgiveness.

A goddess praying a street dog like him…Of course he had to be dreaming. At that his memory became foggy and unclear. Probably he passed out, until he woke up into the bed of the hospital and there she was again.

Her smile so bright, her hands so warm into his arm. He vaguely remembers her speaking about a loan and a signature and then everything he was able to focus on were just her lips.

Those soft pink petals that seemed so good to kiss, to lick, to savor… But in that moment the nurse had come to say that ne needed some rest and then she had to go away. After that moment Ben had found himself dreaming about that girl several times. Rey. Rey Organa.

Why didn’t he asked her number? Or better…Why didn’t he asked her out? He knew why. Because he was an idiot…And maybe because the commotion had prevented him to use the few functional neurons that hadn’t been affected by the lack of blood at his brain. He was such a loser!

This and many other things were running into Ben Solo’s head while he was watching his collegues interact so easily with each other. So when Poe bring him down from his reverie, reaching out in his direction with a glass full of beer, he found himself startled.

“What’s this?” he asked, a bit stupidly, his expression still a bit lost.

“Never mind, just drink. It’s on the house” Poe suddenly retorted.

“I must recall to you that we are police officers” Ben answered “we shouldn’t drink so much, ever!” At that, Poe looked at him with amusement.

“You hadn’t even took a single sip yet, just enjoy your beer and have fun with us Ben” Poe said giving him a pat on his right shoulder.

“But we should be at work right now. I was planning to organize the blitz…We shouldn’t really drink while we are at service!” he insisted shifting the glass of beer far from him in a smooth gesture. At that the whole crowd of people around him started to laugh openly. “Oh, came on Solo! We hadn’t done this in weeks and we should really take a break sometimes! You work too much” Poe said. And his friend spoke with such a honesty that for once, Ben thought that it may be true. Having a single different evening to let himself go in a while, wouldn’t have murdered anyone.

So he brought back the glass into his hand and took a sip, then his mind turned to focus on his previous thoughts about the girl and in less then a few minutes he had his glass already empty.

“Well done pal!” Poe smiled at him giving him another pat on the shoulder, then he brought him another glass full of beer and raising his voice he yelled:

“And for black squadron hip hip hurrah!” and so they drank. And when even his second glass was empty Poe brought him another one and then yelled: “And for Jessika Pava hip hip Hurrah” and so on. At the beginning Ben didn’t seem happy about all of those cheers but then the thing started to became funny because they were getting drunker at every more cheer and so he started to laugh with the others even without acknowledge about it.

“And for our boss who works so hard to organize the blitz…Hip hip Hurrah!”. After the third glass of beer, Ben’s head was already feeling light and foggy. He was a real dud at baring the effects of the alcohol. Why did he let Poe Dameron convince him to drink so much? The atmosphere at the pub had become even warmer now and Poe was literally embracing him as if they were the best friends that someone had ever seen.

“Yes, Solo, you are such a good policeman and also a good guy…” Poe said kissing him into his forehead. Ben tried to pull away from him full of embarrassment. He wasn’t really used to body contact and even if this situation allowed him to get close with his subordinates, he still felt the urgency to keep himself a bit more distant. But then Poe embraced him for the second time.

“Oh come on buddy! We are friends, isn’t it?” Poe asked at that point.

“You are still holding on. Let go, just a bit” he said.

“You are young guy, Solo. Someone like you should be out with some pretty young girl right now…Just like…What was her name? Oh yes, that Rey Organa…Do you remember her? But of course you did. It's because of her that you had been recovered to the hospital” he said with the hope to sound casual. The truth was that Poe and even the other members of the black squadron, that day, had suddenly noticed how their boss had had a strange and unusual reaction in front of that pretty girl.

Jessika had been the first one to notice and then they had all agreed that Ben Solo had fallen at first sight for that young lady. But as soon as he had recovered from his commotion, he had gone back to his usual routine as if nothing had happened. So here entered the plan.

They need to know more about it, to discover if their sensations about Ben and that girl had been right. Because in that case…They could have organized a date for the two of them and maybe, but just maybe, their boss would have finally found out what having a real life would may mean.

And a real life was made also of vacations and time spent with the family. It was a good plan. And a deeply drunken Ben Solo was the best way to obtain those informations from him. “What? Who are you talking about?” Ben pretended not to acknowledge even if at the simple mention of her name he spit out the beer from his mouth.

“Oh come on! I am sure you remember her very well…Big hazel eyes, perfect suntanned skin, wonderful smile. You seemed to like her very much when she came to see you at the hospital, isnt’ it?” Poe asked frankly. And when his boss remained silent and blushed till the tips of his ears, he finally get his answer. “Oh, so you really liked her! I was right! Then…my friend, you should really call Rey Organa and see her again” he stated “Call her? What do you mean?” ben asked in bewilderment “Yes, you know…ask her out for a drink” “What? Are you mad? It’s out of speech! I am not going to ask her out!”

“Why not? You said you liked her…We all heard you, isn’t it guys?” and then everyone around them nodded with his head and murmured something in assent.

“It’s not professional…I am investigating about her loan and that public officer…” Ben blurted out then.

“Oh come on Solo! Don’t try to find some excuses! Be honest with us! You already said that she’s pretty, so what’s the matter? Do you think she’s stupid or…”

“No no no, I suddenly recognized that she has to be smart and intelligent and, she also seemed really kind…”

“So what’s the problem Solo? If she’s so smart and kind and beautiful, why don't you want to date with Rey Organa?”

“Why don’t you get it? That’s exactly why I can’t ask her out! She is too much!” Ben finally spit out “Because when I date girls I am always nervous, and when I am nervous I speak too much and then my hands becomes sweaty and I start to babble nonsense…and so they get bored and…I hate myself so much because I am a mess”

“But how’s this possible?” Poe asked. At that point Ben swallowed a big sip of beer, then looked at the eyes of his friends and confessed: “Please, don’t say this at the people at the office. I don’t want Hux to know about it, but…”

“Don’t be afraid Ben, we are your friends” Poe encouraged him to speak.

“Is that…”he sighed and then took a deep breath “…I have got a big deficiency in the relationship with girls” he finally confessed. At that Snap stepped in: “Oh, I am sorry you feel so bad about it. But dimensions aren’t everything…You know…” he said trying to cheer him up. “What?” Ben suddenly turned towards him horrified, his cheeks completely red “what dimensions? I was just talking about self-esteem!” he suddenly clarify.

“Of course he was talking about emotions” Jessika suddenly said “In fact I would have sworn that in that field his body doesn’t have any lack at all, judging about the size of his feet” and then she smiled at Ben widely making him blush even deeply. But then the tone of the conversation turned serious.

“The fact is that my mother didn’t really want me" Ben explained "she told me that when she discovered that she was pregnant she was planning an abortion. But then the first time she had to get to the hospital there had been a strike and the second time she met a doctor who was a conscientious objector and the third it was the day of the earthquake. So practically I am the son of a series of rotten lucks" he swallowed a sip of beer "I never met my father and my mother never loved me. She was used to remind me every day of my life how much she despised me… So…I became a mess of a man” he concluded.

After his confession his collogues were already showing him a scornful expression. The cheers had stopped and a noisy silence fell all around them. “I am sorry boss, I really didn’t know about that” Poe sighed in embarrassment patting one hand into his shoulders. Then Jessika stepped in with a hint of astonishment into her voice.

"Oh Ben I had no idea! Now I feel guilty because we wanted you to date with a girl just to obtain more vacations, but now that I know about it I am seriously worried for you" At that Ben lifted his gaze to meet her eyes. For a brief moment Jessika and also the other guys feared his possible reaction to her earlier confession. But then Ben snorted and nothing more. "It's okay, I don't mind...I suspected about it till the beginning. I am not mad at you. On the contrary...This is the first time I really let myself go in...I don't even remember the last time I had a real conversation with someone..." he said "Thank you guys..." "You don't have to thank us boss! We are friends. And so now I command you to ask her out boss! You have to ask her out! Really! I am serious!"

Jeassika told him with conviction pointing beating her index into his chest.

"I can't!" Ben huffed in frustration making a step backward. 

“But boss, at work you don’t fear a single thing. You are always so confident and brilliant…” Jessika complained

“Yes, but, with girls I fear everything!” he suddenly answered with a shiver. “But maybe this girl is different” she retorted. “No, she is going to despise me too” Ben insisted. “Maybe you can try to pretend that it is a blitz!” said Snap. At that everyone looked at him with a bad glance.

“Why not? Try to be determined, full or resolve as you are when you arrest those criminals! Girls like this kind of attitute!” he insisted.

“Guys, I appreciate this, really” Ben said passing one of his big hands into his hair with frustration “but I don’t even know where to start… I should have asked her out right then. Now what excuse am I going to find to see her again?” . “You really need an excuse?” Jessika retorted with an incredulous glance.

“Oh yeah…I assure you…I can’t simply ask her out saying…Oh, you know, I am that police officer you kick down that staircase one mouth ago. I saved your number looking into the documents of the archive - in a completely illegal way - and then, after having fantasized a whole month about you and your sweet lips, now I have finally found the courage to ask you if you want to go out with me” he pointed out bitterly.

So Jessika had to acknowledge that he was perfectly right about it. “Yes, this sounds a little creepy…” she murmured.

“Just a little?” Snap increased.

“So it’s true that you have fantasized about her for the whole month! I knew it!” Poe exclaimed full of excitement. And so Ben blushed furiously another time.

“Oh please guys! There has to be a way… Maybe you can go to her house with the excuse of a fiscal supervision. Then you can ask her out!” Jessika suddenly realized. “Oh I have already thought about it" Ben answered quietly"she’s a regular taxpayer. It would be difficult to find something wrong in her tax declaration…” And so the whole black squadron started to think to find a solution.

“If am I right, she lives with her grand mother, isnt’it?” Poe pointed out. “Yes, but how does this matter right now?” Ben suddenly retorted.

“Well, it is notorious that old people’s memory isn’t always as good as they believe it is. Maybe you can say to Rey that you have found some inconsistency into her granny’s declaration. I think it would work” Poe smirked at him.

“Yes, definitively! You have to try this way boss!” Jessika screamed then with enthusiasm.

"Yes Solo! Tell me that you are going to do this. Please..." Poe almost begged. 

And So Ben Solo had no other choice if not to agree. He was too drunk and already too madly in love to protest.

"Okay...I am going to ask her out..." he said in a shaky voice.

And so his collegues smiled at him widely and another glass of beer was brought into Ben’s hand.

“And for granny’s tax declaration…hip hip Hurrahhhh!!!”

“You are going on a date with Rey Organa! Hurahhhh!!!!”

 

To be continued...


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry for the grammar. This chapter had been really difficult for me. I had to write some descriptions and for me it is really difficult. Anyway i hope you are going to enjoy the story. Please let me know what do you think :) thanks and kisses

Getting the freezer empty had took them a little while. Finn, Rey and Rose had to cooperate to arrange all the situation without to leave any clue about what happened. They were lucky that granny Leia had always been an enthusiastic cooker. She used to prepare a lot of food and keep it into an old refrigerator of the dimension of a bath tub.

That way, it wouldn’t have took her much time to prepare the dinner for her beloved granddaughter and her friends at any occasion. Lasagnas, meat pie and many other delicious things like cappelletti pasta and broth had all been accumulate inside of the freezer, right near the gelato and the bags with the frozen food. Yes, at least they had been lucky about this, Rey thought.

The freezer was big enough to contain her granny’s body and the food upon her to hide the corpse better. She wouldn’t have ever managed to cut her granny’s body in halves or anything horrific like that.

The simple thought made Rey feel completely sick. In fact, when Finn had deposed Leia’s corpse inside of the old thing, Rey had let out a strangled whine of desperation, still not fully convinced about that choice, while Rose had been right next to her to comfort her.

“What are we doing? This is horrible, this is…wrong!” she cried, her arms embracing herself protectively.

“Please Rey don’t look at me like that…” Finn had begged her with his deep brown eyes.

“I know, this is terrible and wrong and… But we have no choice if you want to keep up the business okay?” At that Rey started to cry even much heavily. The situation was that unbelievable that when Rose asked her if she wanted her to make a seat with the lasagnas for Leia, Rey found herself laugh like a crazy person. Then she started to whimper and sniff for another time.

“I am sorry granny. This is just for a few months…I promise” Rey said while she was replacing all the food onto the freezer upon her granny’s lifeless body. And when several bags full of cappelletti had been putted back into the old refrigerator, she finally closed the top and let out a strangled sigh. “Forgive me granny. I love you”

……………………………………………………………………

 

A mouth had already passed since her grand mother’s death, and Rey had finally started to accept her new living conditions. She was alone now, and she had been able to keep her job only because her granny’s retirement was still available so she can use it to pay her friends and the bills of her new business.

The death of her only beloved parent had let hem completely drown. But fortuntely, she, Rose and Finn had a great amount of work to do now, because the museums had commissioned the restoration of a lot of art pieces and so the young girl had been able to distract herself and not to think about her terrible sin for the whole time during the last three weeks.

This had been true until the strange tall man of the police department for tax scrutiny had shown up at her house during her afternoon break. Rey’s jaw had clenched immediately at the same moment she had heard the bell door ring and the deep voice of the man had reached for her ears.

“Miss Organa? I am Marshall Ben Solo from the Guardia di Finanza. Can you open the door please?” . In that moment, Rey had felt her hearth sink into her stomach. What the hell!!!

……………………………………………………………

 

Ben had never been so nervous in his whole life. The palms of his hands were already so sweaty that he was afraid to squeeze her hand to greet her, so he prepared himself to wave at her in the way that the military corps do.

_Don’t mess everything up. Please. Don’t mess everything up. Stay calm. Stay calm._

He thought with himself right a moment before she opened the door of her house. And then here she was. Beautiful and sweet like a vision, with her wonderful brown and soft hair caressing her shoulders and her pert little nose with those sweet freckles scattered all around her face. At the same moment her marvelous hazel eyes looked into his own, Ben felt his hearth sink into his stomach. She was perfect. Absolutely perfect. An angel.

“Good morning” he said with hoarse voice, his hands brushing nervously against his upper thighs.

“Good evening” she answered with an acute tone, staring at him from the outside door.

Then silence. They looked at each other awkwardly, both of them completely full of discomfort due to the presence of the other.

“Am I disturbing you Miss Organa?” he asked, his mind already foggy and his gaze lost into the sight of her perfect lips and the softest curves of her body. She was wearing an overall upon a little green shirt and she looked wonderful.

……………………………………………………….

 

“Yes” she answered a little too quickly with a wide super fake smile. Her mind blank because of the anxiety.

_Stay calm Rey. Stay calm._

_Don’t mess everything up._

_Don’t mess everything up. Stay calm!_

“I mean…No…No….I was working  but you are not disturbing…” she suddenly said in the same moment she realized what she had just said. The tall man smiled at her awkwardly. What the hell! Why was he smiling at her that way? Maybe it was everything okay. If there had been something wrong he wouldn’t have smiled at her that way, isn’t’ it? But then what was he doing in front of her house right now? why was he smiling?

“Oh…How do you feel? Better?” Rey asked then remembering about their last encounter at the hospital.

“Oh Yes…Sure…Yes…Better….” he answered dryly as if he didn’t catch what she was referring to.

Then he looked at her in silence for a long moment. His face so serious now that Rey felt even more scared than before. She started to feel the palms of her hands getting sweaty and she hoped with all of her hearth that he wouldn’t have asked her to shake his hand.

Fortunately the man choose just to wave at her with his right hand and so Rey nodded with her head in response. The tall man in front of her looked really clumsy, and in another moment Rey would have noticed about it.

But instead she was so scared that the only thing she could pay attention to was his thick uniform under the black jacket that spoke about his membership: the Guardia di Finanza. Staying with his back straight and looming upon her because of his high, the Marshall looked like the scariest thing she could have thought about in that moment.

More over, everything in him made her shiver. Those black pools he had as eyes were looking at her with so much intensity that she couldn’t really bare the idea to return his stare anymore. She stepped backward into the entrance of her house, not really knowing what to do or say.

“Can I… Hemmm…Could I….Can I come in?” he asked then, his voice growing dim with indecision. She looked at him with growing fear. “Come in?...In my house?...” she asked stopping just before to ask him why.

She couldn’t ask why, she had to act normal, not showing him that she was afraid he could discover about her secret. Not allowing him to enter would have meant to get even many suspicious about her house.

So, instead of screaming out loud how much she didn’t want him to enter her house…

“Of course! Obviously” she answered politely, trying her best not to sound frightened or panicked, flaunting her best smile.

At that he answered with a little smirk of his lower lip and a deep sigh, his eyes sparkling.

Then he followed her into the house. Rey swallowed hard in the same moment he started to look all around. Then a realization hit her brain fiercely.

The freezer! She had placed a lot of pictures of her granny Leia all over the top of it, right between the red candles characteristic of the graveyeard where her granny shoud have been resting and the dozens of rosary that Leia had collected during her long life. It was unmistakable that it was a sort of altar in the memory of her beloved grand mother.

Every single morning in the last month, when Rey had entered that room, where the body of her granny had been hide into the freezer, she had stopped in front of the little altar and begged for her forgiveness, feeling a little better about it every passing day. But now the idea suddenly seemed really stupid.

Nobody should have ever seen that little altar, because her granny for the other people had to be still alive. And the living people didn’t have a commemorative altar in their house! So in the same moment she realized her big mistake, Rey’s blood pressure started to accelerate.

She and the Marshall were just a few steps from the garage where the freezer was positioned and Rey knew only one thing right now: that man had to stay as much far as possible from that place.

She had to think quickly. Her creative workroom was at the opposite side of the house, but to get there they had to pass straight in front of the door who brought to the garage. She had to lead him there quickly across the corridor, without any hesitation. She couldn’t really let him look around the house. So, when he said:

“Oh you have got a very nice home…” Rey answered quickly “thanks but why don’t we go talking in my studio? This way…” and saying so he grabbed him for the jacked and literally dragged him through the corridor until they reached for the studio. If he felt bothered about her awkward attitude he didn’t say it.

The Marshall seemed even too busy paying attention to his surroundings to notice how much nervous she was. Now the only thing she had to do was to find an excuse to run to the garage and take off all the pictures from the freezer before he could ever notice… Rey was already to the point to say something when she noticed with horror that the jaket of the man was covered in oil tempera. The same oil tempera she was using to adjust the canvas she was working, on only a few moments before that he rang the bell.

“Oh My God!... The jacket! Is stained!” she said to him in a whisper, her hands reaching for her mouth. She sounded mortified.

_Oh Shit._

_This is bad. Oh my God! I am a real mess!_ She screamed instead into her head.

At that the tall man gazed at her from head to foot with a dreamy face and answered:

“No, your jacket is perfect Miss Organa” In that same moment Rey felt a little confused. What? Was he kidding her?

“But…I haven’t got a jacket…” she pointed out with bewilderment speaking slowly as if to be sure that he got it. In fact, the man blinked at her a couple of times and, probably noticing that she was wearing a shirt under an overalls, he answered with an acute voice:

“Oh right…Right… You haven’t got any jacket, yes… So…?” and then he looked at her with a lost expression that left Rey a little stunned. Was he playing with her pretending to be stupid or what?

“I meant…Your jacket…” she said then with a hint of fear into her voice closing her eyes for a couple of seconds, fearing his possible reaction.

“Oh, _mine_ jacked?” he asked quietly finally looking for the spot on his right sleeve she was pointing at.

“Yes…I am afraid I smeared it with the color I was using…I….” she explained but then he was already saying:

“Oh never mind. You know, it was new…”. At that Rey became even more pale than before, her hearth still sinking into her stomach

“Oh I am sorry!...” she begged. Then thinking better about what he had just said, she asked:

“What?” In that moment, the tall guy seemed taken aback because of her question:

“Yes…I-I mean…It’s new so I hadn’t have the time to get attached to it already…So…Never mind” he babbled, now clearly embarrassed. They both sighed sharply at the same time, Ben passing his right hand into his hair nervously, while Rey was bouncing up and down her toes in agitation.

They stared at each other for another long moment not saying a word, then she smiled widely and asked:

“Ehi, can I make you a coffee?”

“Well, really I don’t like…it cause me stomachache…” Immediately he started to shake his head but the young girl was already two steps away in the direction of the kitchen.

“Yes, I definitively make you a coffee…Don’t move! I’ll come back in five minutes!” she said and in the same moment she found herself out of his sight, she stormed into the garage to take off all the stuff she had placed upon the freezer.

She put everything into the basket clothes and then she run to the kitchen as quickly as she could to put on the Moka she used to make coffee.

While she was waiting for the coffee to rise on the moka, her hearth was hammering into her chest as it had never in her whole life. If she wasn’t going to die for an heart stroke in that moment, she would have lived forever, she thought.

Swallowing hard she tried to regain her clarity of mind. She breathed in and out sharply. “You said with sugar right?” she yelled at Ben from the kitchen.

Rey was really too nervous to even remember if she had asked him about that.

……………………………………………………………….

“Hemm….Actually I take it bitter but…” he murmured to himself from the other side of the corridor shifting his weight nervously from one foot to another. His voice no more than a whisper.

Then he looked at the smeared sleeve of his new jacket and groaned in disappointment for a long moment. It was completely ruined.

_What the fuck! Stay calm. Stay calm._

_You are acting weird. Stay calm. Stay calm. It’s nothing._

But Maker! He was in her house! He really did rang her bell. And more over, he couldn’t really believe that she had accepted to let him in so easily with that wide smile. Ben’s mind was spinning. He really have to slow down, even because he knew that he was acting weird as usual. He had felt his mind became blank in the same moment his eyes had locked with hers in the entrance of her beautiful house. Now he had to regain his lucidity.

He shook his head a couple of times, and then he started to take a look all around. It was a really warm place, so different from his cold apartment. It spoke of love, joy and light. The walls were full of beautiful paintings and there were also many strange objects.

There was a colored chandeliers and some ancient piece of furniture that he had seen only into museums before, but there were also some modern things, just like the light blue couch on the left of the living room or the bookcase on the right, so full of paper and books of all the kinds he found himself mesmerized.

Definitively she was a smart girl, a curious and romantic one. The smell of flowers and paint was intoxicating too. Ben’s hearth was hammering rapidly into his chest like never in his whole life and the reason was the presence of that cute girl into the other room. At every passing moment she was even more certain about that. She was the woman of his life. It has to be like that.

They were fated. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have met her during that blitz.

So even if his hearth was running into his chest, he was truly happy.

If he wasn’t going to die from an hearth stroke right now, he would have survived everything.

……………………………………………………………..

The coffee was made. Black and hot, she put it on a small cup, and then she quickly reached for her studio.

Despite her efforts to act as much calmly as she could, Rey’s hands now were shaking and so the small cup was clinking against the small plate she had used to bring it to him. when she finally arrived in her studio Rey spent a long moment staring at the looming figure standing in the middle of the room, holding her breath.

He was going to arrest her. For sure.

What else could have been the motive of his visit otherwise? He was such a strange man, almost scary. She really wouldn’t have stayed in room all alone with him if she hadn’t been forced by the situation.

……………………………………………………………

The girl was back with the coffee. And his fears and agitation came back too in the same moment.

 _Oh Damn_. He couldn’t really keep being such a disaster, smiling at her like a maniac.

He had to stay focused and say something smart and ask her out. ……………………………………………………….

 

“So…Marshall…To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” Rey finally asked, the blood in her veins racing.

“Oh…That’s nothing” he said right in the same moment she was offering him the coffee with shaking hands “a simple fiscal inspection” he answered calmly reaching out for the small cup.

But then Rey let go from the cup and all the coffee dropped in the floor and also upon Ben’s trousers just at the high of his crotch. Rey yelped for the terror of what she had just done. Ben screamed for the pain because the coffee was really hot. “Oh, I am sorry…I am deeply sorry… I didn’t mean to…” she said mortified and now scared to the bones.

“Oh no, no, no, I am the one who’s sorry, I didn’t want to scary you…I…I know that your tax declaration is perfect…” he retorted trying to ignore the burning.

At that Rey’s attention immediately came back to the matter they were discussing.

“Then why are you here for the fiscal inspection?” and so she looked at him in bewilderment. In that moment Ben felt like he has his back to the wall. Oh…he was such an idiot! Why did he have to open his damn mouth! He had to say something to justify his behaviour now…something…anything…But his mind was empty.

“Because…It’s a cross section control… that helps to control…The control of the…Because…Because the law number 765/2016 article 34 sais that…” he bubbled staring at her right in the eyes.

The panic rising into his voice at every word. After his explanation Rey was even much confused than before but she really didn’t want to argue with a Marshall of the Guardia di Finanza, especially in that moment, when she feared the he could discover the truth about her granny. So she declared:

“Okay, never mind. All the documents are right there” and so she pointed at a shelf full of papers.

“I am sorry… I am going to make you another coffee right now…” and saying so she started to lead for the kitchen for the second time.

“Oh no….I don’t…Please don’t….” Ben mumbled but then the phone started to ring and so she had to reach for the kitchen anyway.

“I am sorry…I’ll come back soon, now I have to answer…”

……………………………………………………..

 

_He was such an idiot! Such a terrible, stupid idiot!_

Ben thought of himself, now looking at his ruined trousers. The smell of the coffee permeating the air all around him. He had to calm down. But when he tried to sit on a chair nearby, he had just the time to feel the wood snap under his weight and then he found himself on the floor.

 _Oh Jusus!_ He had just broke an old chair in the house of the girl he liked… after having frightened with his clumsy behavior. He was such a loser. He shouldn’t have ever come to see her. She was too much for him.

She was too nice, too smart, too kind to bear a calamity like him into her life. Girls like her didn’t get interested in man like him. He should have known.

……………………………………………………

_What the hell! She was a complete mess!_

How could she spill all the coffee into his trousers after having already smeared his new jacket?! She was such a disaster! And even after that, the tall man didn’t seem to be angry at her.

She didn’t expect him to be so patient, even if the whole story he had told her about the reason of his visit, didn’t really convinced her. She knew that probably he already knew about her granny, but she wasn’t sure.

If it had been for Rey, she would have confessed everything already. But until the very last moment, she had promised to Finn and Rose that she wouldn’t have said a single word about it. And she really didn’t want to go to jail… But was if he had found her granny’s corpse into the freezer? No no, this whole situation was already unbearable.

She has to do something… The phone continued to ring and Rey had no choice but to answer.

“Hello?” she asked, her voice a little annoyed.

“Hello Leia? It’s you princess?” a male voice asked.

At that Rey found herself completely unprepared. “Princess? Who’s at the phone?” she asked.

“Oh, I am sorry…I am Han from Bordighera…Is Leia there?”

“Who?” Rey asked then mesmerized.

“Han from Bordighera. I wanted to say that I am planning to stay in the nearby until Friday so I was wondering that maybe your granny…” At that Rey’s hearth bounced into her throat.

“I am sorry but granny isn’t at home. She’s gone to Chianciano Terme” she invented “And she is coming back on Sunday, what a pity…By by” and saying so Rey hung up the phone fiercely.

_Who the Hell was this Han from Bordighera?_

She never heard about him! How was it possible that everyone seemed so interested to talk with her granny all of a sudden? Rey was to the point to self-combustion when Marshall Ben Solo reached her into the kitchen.

“I am leaving” he said dryly with a serious expression on his face.

“Really?” she asked maybe too quickly and with too much relief into her voice with her eyes wide.

“Yes, I have to go now…You know…there is an urgency at the office…” he lied.

“So, you check upon everything, right?”

“Oh, yes…it’s perfect…Everything’s okay…But I already knew it…I am sorry to having bother you…I’ll go…”

“Yes, but…I am sorry…If you already knew that, why did you come here?” she really couldn’t avoid to ask

. …………………………………………………..

_What the fuck!_

He knew he had to invent something better than this excuse.

Yes, at this point he had no choice. He had to tell her the truth and ask her out…But after that bad impression he gave her, Ben didn’t really found the courage to do it. He felt panicked.

“Oh…The reason….The real reason was…” Think Ben. Think. “…to check on your granny’s declaration. You know because of her retirement…” he said suddenly remembering the advices of his friends.

Yes. This was an acceptable excuse.

………………………………………………………

In the same moment he pronounced those words, Rey felt the ground under her feet falter. Oh Shit! He knew! She didn’t really know how was it possible, but he knew! He definitively knew about it! And that meant that she was going to go to jail! SHIT!!! Meanwhile the Marshall was still asking:

“Leia Organa, right? Daughter of Bail Organa, born in 1941…She receives a retirement every month…”

Rey’s mind became fuzzy and for a little while she feared she was going to pass out.

But then she imposed to herself to stay still and smile back at him, pretending that she was perfectly at ease.

She had to do this, because even if he knew, maybe he didn’t have any evidence against her yet, and she didn’t want to be the one to give him the inkling. She had to stay calm.

“So…Yes, everything’s okay…but where is granny right now?” he asked then, a hint of curiosity into his voice. Rey swallowed hard a couple of times before to answer:

“Oh…she’s gone to Chianciano Terme…But she lives with me usually. I’m taking care of her” she smiled, her gut protesting with distress because she was feeling very guilty in that moment.

At that point the man seem to be to the point to say something more, but then he shook his head and smiled back at her passing one hand into his hair nervously.

“Okyay then…So, I hope I can meet her, maybe next time…Now I have to go…See you soon miss Organa” making one step outside and then another. His pace a little faltering.

“Goodbye Mashall!” she greeted him then, closing her door with urgency. Now she could finally let out the breath she had been holding for the whole time. And much more important, she was going to call Finn and Rose to tell them about everything. She has to act quickly. …………………………………………………..

Ben Solo looked at the door closed in front of him and cursed to the wind. Why didn’t he asked her out? After all those stupid questions about her granny, it was obvious that she was confused regard his intentions. Jesus! He was such a loser!

At that point he couldn’t do anything but coming back to his office with the awareness that the girl of his life wouldn’t have ever noticed him. Or at least not in the way he hoped. He couldn’t really keep seeing her with the excuse of a fiscal inspection… It was insane! …………………………………………………………

“Are you sure peanut?” Finn asked for the third time that afternoon. At that she huffed with annoyance.

“Yes! I’m telling you! He pretends to be dummy but he is smart! And he knows everything!”

“But how?” Rose stepped in.

“I don’t know, but he knows! You should have heard him when he left…He even told me that he wanted to see granny and he greeted me saying: s _ee you soon Miss Organa_ … He knows!!”

“Oh no! We are going to go to jail!” Rose screamed at that, already to the brim of tears “what can we do now?” So Finn started to think and tried to calm the two girls with soothing words.

“Okay…Don’t panic. This is the plan: he can’t arrest us without the proof of the crime, isn’t it?”

“Right” Rey and Rose nodded at the same time.

“So, listen carefully: we are going to take granny out of the freezer and then we’ll call the doctor and say that she’s just dead. This way we wouldn’t have committed any crime! It’ll work!” he assured.

The girls looked at him for a long moment in silence, weighing his words.

“Okay then… But this is going to require some time…I mean…When you have to defrost a chicken it takes you half of an hour… And usually the weight of the chicken is around 500 grams. If you consider that granny’s weight was around 70 kilograms… the whole thing will require, well…Around 15 hours maybe?”

“Yes..But you have to subtract the 21 kilos because that’s the weight that your body loses when you die and so…” Finn suddenly retorted. “Please stop it! I can’t stand it anymore! I remember you that we are talking about my grand mother! This is awful. I am feeling sick right now…Sorry” and saying so Rey left the room to close herself into the bathroom. Then she started to cry one more time.

“Oh peanut…I am sorry…” Finn said from the outside.

“We shouldn’t have done this…I am really sorry” But Rey wasn’t listening anymore. her life was a complete mess. She was going to lose everything she had worked for in the last years, and probably she had already lost even more, just like her soul… What she had done to her granny was terrible and unforgivable… maybe she deserved to be arrested in the end.

“Rey…This is going to go in the right way. I promise. We’ll do it this weekand okay? The Finanza doesn’t work on Sunday. There won’t be any problem okay?”

A strangled moan came from the bathroom and so Finn knew that he had to shut his mouth. Better come back to work and start to arrange things for the weekand.

 

…………………………………………………..

 

That same Saturday morning…

Black squadron was at work as usual. Jessika Pava was exasperated. Her family needed her and she really couldn’t bare anymore to do all those extra hours. Poe and Snap were of the same advice. But much more important, they seemed genuinely worried for their boss health. In fact, during the last few days Ben Solo had acted even oddly than usual and they already had a suspect about the real reason of his weird attitude.

“So, boss…at the end…Did you go to her house?” Jessika finally asked seeing that her colleagues didn’t seem to find the courage to address him properly. Ben then looked back at them with his sad eyes and swallowed a couple of times.

“Yes…I went to her house…” he answered in a low voice, rapidly shifting his gaze towards the ceiling. The other members of the squadron answered enthusiastically with a yelp. They didn’t really expect that answer from him.

“Oh Relly? Good! I am glad to hear it!” Poe suddenly commented.

“Good job boss!” Snap added. But when they noticed how much sad he was, they understood that something must have gone really wrong.

“So, what happened? Did you ask her out? What did she answer?” Jessika insisted. At that, Ben Solo’s eyes locked into hers and she immediately knew that the answer wouldn’t have been the one she had hoped to hear.

“I didn’t asked her out… I couldn’t….I….You know: cold sweat, palpitations, empty mind…I wasn't really capable to say anything at all...But...Maybe it is better this way…She was too much for me anyway” he blurted out. In that same moment all of his friends groaned in disappointment.

“Oh boss, please don’t say things like that. You are good guy and one of the best person I know” Poe said.

“I know that you are shy, but you have to fight your shyness” Jessika added.

“Yes boss, you have to come back to her and ask her out!” Snap repeated. He looked at them both warily.

“How? I can’t always go to her with the excuse of an inspection…Probably She already thinks I am mad…” he complained.

“Well, you can always say that the last time you forgot something at her house…” Snap proposed.

“Yes, and when she will ask you about it, you will say that the thing you forgot was to ask her out” Poe added. “It will work! We are with you Ben!” Jessika insisted.

“Please, ask her out boss!”

And so Ben reluctantly stare back at them and thought that maybe they were right. Because despite all of his fears, he knew deep into his heart, that that girl had something special.

At least he had to try… One last chance and then he would have gave up definitively.

“Okay,I’ll go to her” he assured them. A little smirk forming into his face.

“You are going to conquer her. For sure!” Poe assured to him with a smile. "We are all by your side boss!"

 

To be continued...


	4. Chapter 4

Sunday morning had come so quickly that Rey didn’t have the time to realize about it. Finn and Rose were already at her house when she came back from her usual morning walk.

“Peanut…We are ready…We already put out granny from the freezer. She’s in the garage…” he announced.

“We will be right here for all the time. I have brought cards so we can play burraco for the next 15 hours” Rose suddenly added with a soft smile.

But when Rey’s expression became sad, they both sighed heavily not finding better words to cheer her up.

“Thank you guys…” she said then sitting on a chair into her own livingroom.

“I am glad you are here with me”.

And so they started to play cards while granny was going to get defrost in the other room.

After a few minutes the telephone rang vigorously and they both winced in surprise. When Rey pick it up, she was greeted by the same male voice of the other day.

“Hello! I am Han from Bordighera. Is Leia back?” the man asked. 

“No, she is still at Chianciano Terme…” Rey answered with a hint of annoyance into her voice.

“But she was supposed to came back today! Because I was planning to…” Han suddenly retorted.

“Well, she’s not, I am deeply sorry. By!” and saying so she hung up with energy.

Then she came back to her game card in the company of Finn and Rose.

After a while she murmured: “That’s strange”

“What?” Finn asked positioning the cards into his hands. 

“My granny never told me about this Han from Bordighera, and now he calls two times in a little while…” she explained.

Finn and rose were already to the point to answer, but then, exactly in that moment the bell door rang.

…………………………………………………………..

Ben Solo was absolutely eager to see Rey Organa for the third time. And for the occasion he had prepared himself wearing his civilian clothes. A pair of black trousers under an also black jacket (a new one) and a black t-shirt. His long hair had been combed and his beard shaved like usual. But this time it had took him a great amount of courage before to ring again at that doorbell.

Because he was afraid. This time it was Sunday and he couldn’t really bother her with the excuse of another inspection.

He didn’t even sleep because of the tension, but this had helped him to think about another excuse he could use to see her again not looking like a maniac.

Because during his wakefulness he had realized that after having broken one of her chairs, he never apologized about it…

Jeez!… He was such an idiot! But maybe this excuse could have worked.

_He was back at her home because he wanted to apologize and refund her for the damage._

And then… Maybe then he could have found the courage to ask her out…And if he hadn’t, well…He could have gone away without any more explanation.

Sure, this plan was perfect. He was definitively going to ring at her doorbell right now

…………………………………………………..

 

When the sound of the doorbell caught them in the middle of their card games, Finn, Rey and Rose froze at their place. They remained silent for a while, hoping to have just dreamed about it, but it was not possible.

The three of them had heard the bell ring at the same time. After a long moment in which they had look at each other helplessly, the bell had rang for a second and a third time. There was someone at the door.

“What the hell! Are you waiting for someone?” Finn then murmured letting go the cards on the table in front of him.

“No. We were supposed to stay here alone and wait for granny to defrost without any meddling. I don’t really know who…” Rey answered in a whisper, and in that same moment the voice that had haunted her in her nightmares during that early night, introduced himself.

“Miss Organa? Are you at home? I’m Mashall Ben Solo… Can you open the door please?”

Suddenly both Rose and Finn became pale and started to look at her with fear.

“Is he the man you were talking about?" 

When she nodded Finn's skin suddenly became paler.

"So he really knows about it! How could he knows?!” Finn said with incredulity, his voice full of concern and bewilderment at the same time.

He waved at Rey bringing his hands at his head with frustration.

“Oh no! I don’t want to go to jail!” Rose almost cried.

“We are not going to go to jail Rose…Please stay calm!” Finn interjected but the fear was palpable into his tone too.

“If we stay here in silence he will think that there isn’t anybody at home…It’s simple. Just keep quiet and…” he was explaining in a low voice. And for a brief moment the two girls seemed truly relieved after hearing his words.

But then Rose’s cell phone started to ring.

That stupid ringtone she used was unmistakably one of a cell phone and the music was loud.

“Shut it down!” Finn growled at Rose “Now!” but the girl was so nervous she couldn’t even find her phone into her handbag.

Both Finn and Rey clamped their jaws, squinted their eyes and looked at her with anger until the other girl finally managed to answer at her I-phone.

“Hello Peige…I am sorry, I can’t speak right now…I am probably going to be arrested. But I’ll explain to you later. By” she said in rush under the exasperated gazes of her two friends.

But it was already too late. There was no doubt about the fact that the man at the door had heard her phone rang.

“Why did you tell her so?” Finn complained looking at Rose and shaking his head vigorously in disapproval.

“I don’t know…I am panicked…” she answered almost yelling and then suddenly bringing her hands at her mouth.

“Now we are really going to go to jail!” Finn retorted, jst to hear Rose whimper even more loudly. Then he turned towards Rey.

“You have to do something! He can’t come inside…If he sees that Leia is dead and still half frozen in the garage we are all doomed”

“But Finn…What am I supposed to do now? He’s probably here for a blitz or something…” Rey asked then with her hands shaking.

“I don’t know peanut…But please try something. Please!”

In the meantime, the man at the door was getting impatient.

“Miss Organa?”

 

_Oh Maker! This was going to be a long day!_

……………………………………………………..

 

Ben’s paranoid attitude was taking the best of him. It had already passed almost five or six minutes since the moment he rang and he had just heard the sound of a ring tone that was probably the one of her cell phone, but she hadn’t come to open the door yet.

And this could may mean a single thing: she had recognized him and she was pretending not to be at home because she didn’t want to talk with him.

 _Because he was a mess,_ a part of him thought.

 _Or maybe she actually wasn’t at home and she had just forgot her cell phone right there_ … But this sounded ridiculous… And if he truly believed it was possible he was just lying to himself.

He knew it! It would have been much better not to come again. She probably despised him yet. What a fool to even think that he could have the right to ask her out…

Ben Solo was already to the point to leave Rey Organa’s house, when her door flew open and a very half naked Rey presented herself in her toweling robe.

“Marshall!” she greeted him with a wide smile. At the same moment Ben’s jaw dropped into the ground.

He couldn’t believe at his eyes. The green fabric that was covering her beautiful body was merely sufficient to cover her curves, and it wasn’t enough to prevent him to see her beautiful shoulders or her long legs, and even the upper side of her soft breasts.

His mind became blank in an instant and he even forgot about what he had repeated to himself during his way towards her house. The chair and all the other stuff completely blown away from his mind. Replaced by a great sense of relief. She wasn't avoiding him, she was just having a shower when he rang. 

“Good…Good…morning Miss Organa…” he blurted out warily, then he swallowed hard.

“Oh I am sorry…I was having a shower… What are you doing here?” and saying so Rey closed the door behind her to prevent him to see inside of her house.

Ben blinked at her for a long moment, her hands sweaty.

“Me? Ah..I was…I…” he swallowed again “I…Last time I came here I… I forgot a thing…” he finally said. His mind desperately trying to remember what he was supposed to tell her. 

At that Rey looked at him with concern but tried to maintain her expression as much neutral as possible.

“Yes. I’m listening” she smiled at him and Ben’s hearth started to race.

“I…I forgot…Last time I forgot…a chair” he said still enraptured.

“A chair?” she asked with confusion.

“I mean…Not a chair… Or better, yes it is but it wasn’t mine…I mean…”

“Wait, so this isn’t an inspection or a blitz right?” Rey asked then with a hint of annoyance into her voice and a great fear into her hearth.

“A blitz?” he countered then “oh no, no, no…Why should I came here for a blitz?” he retorted.

At that Rey swallowed hard thinking that maybe she had just made a misstep.

And so she started to laugh, a fake laugh full of nervousness, trying to appear completely relaxed and at her ease. 

“Yes, right, why should you came here for a blitz? Hahaha… I am so silly sometimes” she smiled more with her mouth while her eyes were wide with terror.

“No…actually I came here to ask you something…” he said, his right hand passing furiously into his black hair.

Only then she noticed about the fact that he wasn’t wearing his usual uniform. What was happening then, Rey asked to herself in confusion.

“Yes?” she encouraged him with trepidation.

“I…I wanted to apologize because last time I broke your chair” he finally remembered.

"So?" Rey asked.

“ So...Can I come in? maybe we can talk about it and…”

“No, I think it would be better to talk about it in another moment…”

“But I really want to reimburse you for the chair. I promise! It would took just a few minutes…I can make you an allowance…” he insteted then in a harsh voice that scared her a little.

Meanwhile Ben cursed at himself for his stupidity. Why didn't he asked her out directly?  

“No, no, I don’t care. That chair was really old anyway…” Rey suddenly retorted.

“Yes, I know. It was probably something of a certain value and…Just let me in for a moment…” Ben continued.

“NO! You can’t come inside!” suddenly Rey screamed letting him a bit stunned.

“Excuse me?” he immediately shook his head, confused about her strange reaction.

Oh Damn. He was that bad at flirting that she had to scream at him to be certain that he could have reached the message clearly. He knew he shouldn’t have come at her house to bother her...

… ………………………………………….

Rey looked at Ben Solo with horror.  Had she just screamed at him like a mad woman without any apparent reason?

Oh God! She had to say something, to apologize before he could get suspicious.

“No, No, I am sorry…It’s just… In the other room there are my friends and…They are naked” she explained. At that Finn and Rose looked at her with wide eyes. 

“What?” Ben asked then in bewilderment.

“Yes…You know...My job is to restore art pieces, but I am also a painter and I was…painting…my friends…naked… I don’t know if it’s okay for them to be seen by a Mashall of the Guardia di Finanza like that and…” she invented. 

“Okay Okay… I am sorry, I didn’t really want to bother you…It’s just…The real reason I came here it’s another…” Ben finally menaged to admit. 

“Yes?”

“But maybe…I am going to tell you next time…" and so he made a step backwords and then he turned towards the street. But after a few seconds he addded: "...or maybe not" he turned towards Rey for the second time. 

"No…I want to tell you right now...”

“Oh could you please just tell me…” she said then with frustration “I…I really can’t stand the waiting…Sorry…” she explained. And so his great moment had come. 

“Okay…The fact is that…I am not here for the chair" he started "because the last time…I forgot…The truth is that the last time I forgot to…ask…you…out…” he finally blurted out in a whisper biting at his lower lip at the same moment he finished to speak.

And so Rey looked at him in shock for a long moment.

_What the hell! Was this really happening?!_

When he noticed that she had remained silent he hurried to say: 

“It’s fine…It’s totally fine if you don’t want to accept. I was expecting a refusal anyway... But… Maybe we can just go out for an ice-cream…  I am very good at licking…and usually in a few seconds I am done… But…”

_Oh Jesus Crist! What was he saying right now? Why didn't he can act like a normal man?_

Ben was already expecting a "no" as an answer, when her answer arrived completely unexpected.

“But it’s fantastic! Why didn’t you tell me immediately? 

“You...You wanna go out with me? Really?"

"Yes!" Rey answered strongly.

"Right now?”

“Of course! Don’t you see? It’s such a beautiful day! I wanna stay out all the time!” she said just a moment before to storm back into her house and get prepared.

"And your friends?"

At his question she winced for a while. She had already forgot about that story.

"Oh, we had just done with it. In fact I was already under the shower when you arrived. I'll be ready in a second. Just wait here for me! I’m looking forward for a gelato pistachio and ciocolate” she answered with energy.

......................................................

Rey had never dressed herself so quickly. In less then five minutes the two of them had already left her house in the direction of the main square. 

And Ben still couldn’t believe that she had accepted his offer so enthusiastically. 

He wasn’t prepared. For the whole time he had just though about how he would have faced Rey’s refusal and not for a moment his mind had really believed she could accept to go out with him.

So right now he was feeling as happy as ever. 

………………………………………………..

Rey couldn’t be more glad about that awkward situation.

The only reason why Ben Solo was still interested in her was that he had a crush.

Not a real investigation about her situation. Wasn't this marvelous? He was just a jerk who had fallen for a pretty girl also younger than him.

She let out a deep sigh of relief while they walked together towards the square.

Fortunately it was a sunny day and maybe Finn and Rose would have been able to defrost granny Leia in the main time she was keeping the Marshall far from her house.

So maybe the weren’t going to go to jail.

All she had to do was entertain him for the rest of the day and then everything would have been okay, or so she hoped.

“So…You are an artist right?” he asked her in a low voice that unexpectedly made her shiver.

“Oh, not a real one. Just an amateur. My jobs consists in repairing something that other had created before...Usually I don’t paint something mine…Today was an exception” she answered.

“Oh I understand. But, why did you chose to paint your friends naked? It is a normal thing between artists or…” he continued. Maybe it was his profession deformation that brought him to ask her so many questions, but Rey didn't really felt at her ease about it. 

“No, no, it’s not but…Oh look, there’s the shop who sells the best gelato in town!” she hurried to change subject. He smiled at her with kindness and for a while the girl lost herself into his brown eyes, realizing for the first time that Marshall Ben Solo was actually a very good looking guy.

…………………………………………….

“I never thank you for your help with that public officer. You know, the one who denied to give me the loan…” she said then, looking enthusiastically at her ice-cream.

“Oh really? But there is no need at all” Ben answered with a wide smile offering her the little spoon she was supposed to use to eat her ice-cream. Then he realized that she had took a cono while he was the one who took the little cup. In the same instant Rey started to lick at her gelato he felt his head spinning.

“It’s my job” he answered, his mind completely dazed “and more over I couldn’t really bare to see that disgusting man oppressing a young pretty girl like you… hemmm… I mean, a _citizen_ , like you… I mean…Actually If you had been a man I would have done the same…Of course…Not that I am gay…I’m - I’m not gay…I mean… But... And of course there isn’t anything bad about the fact of being gay… I have lots of friends who are gay and I like them very much….I mean, not sexually speaking…I mean… they are sensitive..." he started to blabber.

Rey was listening in confusion, trying to enjoy her ice-cream, so when they sit on a bench at the center of the park, Ben was so focused on her little tongue liking at the cono, so lost into his own confused speech that he can’t really pay attention to where he was putting his own ice-cream.

Until Rey decided to sit right onto his little cup.

She yelped in the same moment her bottom cheeks pressed against the cold strawberry gelato that Ben had took for himself.

And so her white trousers were completely ruined.

“Oh I am deeply sorry…Do you want me to bring you home right now?” he suddenly asked her full of concern. At that the girl became a little pale. 

“No, no. I am having fun with you…really…This is nothing…Maybe you can tell me more about your job while we take a walk? " she smiled. And so they kept walking. 

………………………………………………

 

After the ice-cream accident Rey had though that the worst was already passed, but unfortunately it was not.

Because Ben Solo revealed himself as a long-winded super boring speaker.

She shouldn’t really have asked him about his job. Once he started to talk about the Guardia di Fiananza he didn’t seem able to stop.

And so Rey regretted immediately her choice to let him talk about himself to avoid to talk about herself.

That man was absolutely unaware of how much boring he could sound at her ears… She hadn’t been as much bored in her whole life.

It seemed that he couldn’t speak about anything but law and rules and numbers.

Rey had never had such a bad appointment in… _ever._

She forced herself to smile at him, but after her third yawn he finally noticed something, because he asked her:

“Ehi…Am I boring you? Because in that case, I can always bring you back home…It’s oaky…”

At that Rey spring at full attention, her yes wide.

“No no, why are you asking? Your speech is so interesting! I have always wanted to know more about the Guardia di Finanza” she smiled

“I’m just a little tired because I didn’t sleep well last night. Please go on...”.

That seem to reassure him, because just a couple of seconds later he said: “Oh great. So I bet you will find super interesting the decree legislative number…”.

At that Rey had to struggle with herself not to look up to the sky and scream.

 _Oh my God! What did I do to deserve this?_ It was really going to be the worst date of her life.

………………………………………….

When she finally managed to find a bar with a bathroom, without the hulking presence of Ben Solo right at her side, Rey could finally call Finn and ask him about the situation at home.

 “Peanut! You left without any explanation. It’s everything all right? What happened?” her friend asked in apprehension “did he bring you at the police station?”

Before to answer Rey had to took a sharp breath to calm her nerves.

Then she finally explained:

“No, nothing like that. He didn’t know about granny. I was wrong. He came to my house only because it seems that he has a crush for me”.

On the other side of the phone, Finn’s eyebrows furrowed in surprise.

“What?”

“You heard me well. He just wanted to go out with me…We are at the park in this same moment, and...Finn, it’s terrible! Really. You can’t understand. He is clumsy and boring and totally crazy. He had just hit my face with a bundle of roses in the attempt to bring them away from the hands of the poor seller who had made the error to refuse to leave us the receipt. Have you ever met a flower seller who makes you the receipt? He didn't even knew what it was! And my trousers are completely ruined because of his ice-cream and right now he’s arguing with another person because he didn’t put the muzzle on the face of his dog. He is a hot mess! So please, call me back when she’s completely unfreezed” she poured out. 

At that Finn jolted.

“Well, actually we had already put her into the freezer again”

“What?” Rey yelled back with shock.

“Why did you do that? I am bearing the unbearable just to give you the time to do it! Finn! That was the plan!” she complained, her voice completely frantic.

“I am sorry Rey…We didn’t really know what to do when you gone away. I thought...”

“But Finn! You can’t really imagine what I am going through right now. He is a plague…I am already sick and tired of him, you had no idea!” she complained again. 

“Sorry peanut but me and Rose are going home right now. You can always ditch him if you want... We have done here. See you tomorrow” he said.

And so Rey exited the bar with a mournful expression on her face, just to put on a smile in the same moment Ben Solo turned towards her with a grin.

_What a day!_

…………………………………………………………….

 

Ben was aware that he probably had spoken too much, and maybe he could have let go about the itinerant seller of the flowers, or the man with the dog without the muzzle.

This way they could have avoided to run directly into the lake to be safe from his bites, and maybe Rey wouldn’t have looked at him with that angry expression on her face during the whole journey towards her home.

What he really couldn’t get was the reason why she had accepted to stay in his company for so long even when she already seemed completely annoyed by his presence.

Maybe it was him, he didn’t have much experience with girls, but even when she kept saying she was fine, using  really soothing words, her face spoke of a different range of emotions hidden behind of her kindness. Probably she just have pity of him. It has to be like that. 

The sun was already set by the time they arrived at her house.

And when they finally reached for her door, Ben Solo wasn’t sure if he should have asked her out for a second appointment. Probably it would have been better not to even try. He was shy but not so stupid… Judginb by her exausted expression, she would have refused for sure.

“So…Goodnight” she said, her face completely devastated just like her clothes and her hair.

“It had been a horrible day, isn’t it?” he asked then with an awareness into his voice that spoke for itself.

“What are you saying? I don't even feel the pain of the thorn of the roses anymore…” she tried to lie without much success.

At that a series of barks reached for them, and they both instantly realized that it had to be the same dog they had hardly sowed at the park.

Rey rushed to reach the keys into her pocket and then, in the blink of an eye they were already inside of her house, the main door closed at their back.

Both of them were still breathing heavily. Then they looked at each other for a long moment in the darkness.

So Rey reached for the switch to turn the light on, and in that moment, right when she was thinking that her day couldn’t go in worse way, she discovered that there wasn’t the electrical current operating.

_No! No! No! It can’t be!_

She screamed into her head.

In that same moment, Ben Solo asked: “Ehi, what happened? Isn’t the system functional anymore?”

And so Rey suddenly cursed at herself, Rose and Finn to have decided to do what they have done!

Because it was obvious, the Karma was trying to punish her.

There wasn’t other explanation.

For sure there was a superior force that wanted her to be discovered by this man, in a way or another.

And for a little while she felt really powerless, to the brim of tears. 

“Never mind, I can help you to adjust everything,” Ben Solo offered looking into her eyes. Then he reached for the electric implant outside in the backward, helping himself with the light of his I-phone. Rey couldn’t help but following him.

“Strange. It seems perfectly well” he mumbled after a while “Maybe this is just temporary. If you remember there were some workers two streets on the left who were fixing some wires of the high tension…Probably it has to do with that. You have just to wait for them to finish the job” he said with a little smile.

At that Rey thanked the God and hoped with all of her being that he would have finally decided to go away.

“So, thank you very much Ben…I think I am fine right now. I don’t need your help anymore” she said, a hint of urgency into her voice.

She was so damn tired right now that she hoped he could get the inkling and decide to go away as soon as possible and not to show anymore.

“Wait… Have you got a freezer?” he asked then with a serious face.

“What?” and Rey really hoped to have heard it wrongly. 

“A freezer" he repeated. "Because when they had changed the control unite near my house, my freezer got completely defrost and so I had to endure something like 300 euro of damages…All of that food wasted...So I think it would be better to get the freezer empty right now and maybe…” and saying so he reached for the garage and opened the old refrigerator nonchalantly.

Rey’s hearth lost a bit in that same moment.

_What the Fuck! It wasn’t really happening! Not at all!_

Oh why did Finn had to put granny into the freezer once more?

Why did they have to fix the system right now?

Why was that Mashall of the Guardia di Finanza so eager to help her to void her freezer even if they merely know each other?

_Yes, she must be dreaming. Definitively._

_And this was a horrible nightmare._

Fortunately, Finn and Rose had replaced all the food on the surface, hiding her granny’s body into the bottom of the freezer.

Otherwise Ben would have already discovered about it. Instead, he looked calm as his usual. There wasn’t any clue he would have already noticed that something was wrong.

And that meant only one thing: she had still the time to do something about it.

“NO!” Rey screamed for the second time that day reaching for the cover of the freezer and closing it rapidly. He looked at her with a confused expression. 

“No, no…please” she said then trying to keep herself quiet as much as possible.

He looked at her with her eyebrows furrowed.

“Why not?” he asked then, his tone of voice a little suspecious.

“Because I need to do something urgent…” she improvised.

“What?”

“…It’s something personal…” she suddenly retorted.

“Okay, there is no problem… You can do your personal _thing_ while I’ll get the freezer empty,” he answered quietly reaching for the freezer once more.

And so a burst of anger hit Rey’s brain uncontrollably.

Why had he to be so stubborn?

“No, no, you can’t do this!” she screamed, closing the cover of the freezer for the second time.

“Why?” he asked then a little stunned.

“Because…” and then she tried to calm herself down.

“Because…”

_Think Rey. Think…_

_Oh my God! If you can’t invent something in this right moment, he is going to discover about everything._

_Think Rey… Think!_

 

And so she said: “Because…this thing we…we need to do it together…”

Ben Solo looked at her with his dark eyes and swallowed.

“I am sorry Rey, but what’s this thing urgent and personal, that we should do together right now? I can’t really get…”

And so she had no choice.

On one side there was the abyss, the jail.

On the other a very bad memory that she would have tried to forget for the rest of her life…her free life…

She was going to do this! For her friends. Finn and Rose really didn’t deserve to go to jail too. Not because of her fault.

And so, Rey did the only thing she could do in that moment.

She looked at him right into his black eyes for a long moment returning his gaze and then she kissed Ben Solo on the mouth.

 

To be continued...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. As usual I would like to know your opinion. Kisses


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone :* I hope you'll enjoy this chapter too. You are wonderful

……………………………………………..

It was impossible.

He couldn’t really believe this was truly happening to him. After that horrible afternoon he would have sworn she didn’t want to see him anymore. And yet they were actually kissing each other sitting on the edge of her bed. Rey’s lips were even much softer than he had imagined.

Ben struggled with himself to contain a moan that wanted to blew out of his throat. For sure Rey was different from all the other girls he had met before. She was special, because despite all of his awkwardness she was still happy to have him close to her and Ben now was so happy, so relieved he couldn’t even found the words to explain himself.

Maybe for once in his life, things were really going in the right way. Even if, her behavior, was a little strange. Ask him to go upstairs directly into her bedroom after a single afternoon spent together.

He knew how their first date had been like. Ben wasn’t so naïve to believe that she really felt something for him after…that. And so he desperately wanted to keep kissing her, but at the same time he really needed to know what was going on. ……………………………………………

It was impossible. She couldn’t really believe this was truly happening to her. After that horrible afternoon she would have sworn it couldn’t go worse. Instead, here she was, on her bed, trying to keep that man away from her freezer, kissing him, to avoid to go to jail. Ben Solo's smell was all around her, and for a little while Rey found herself almost pleased about it.

She couldn’t really expect him to smell so good. Moreover, Ben Solo could be a living plague, a calamity in many other subjects, but, she discovered, he was incredibly good at kissing. He kept getting close to her while his tongue was slightly asking access into her mouth. She couldn’t avoid to let him in and she moaned when their tongue met.

Then Rey’s hands brushed against his chest in the attempt to keep him away from her, just to discover that he was like a fortress. His muscles were so toned, so damn pleasing to touch…

Hell! What was she even thinking? He was dummy, no, better, he was her doom. She couldn’t really enjoy that. Did she become mad? Even if, maybe, looking at the situation, it would be better for her to not think about it too much and trying to enjoy it as much as possible. She hadn’t ever done something like that.

Sleeping with a man she had just met. Usually she was really selective about her partners and she let them wait a lot before to allow them to touch her. That situation was completely new for Rey. She felt totally crazy right now because they were getting closer second by second and her capacity to pretend that she was all right about it was decreasing at every sharp breath she took between one kiss and another.

This couldn’t work. She had to do something. A wave of desperation was already crushing against her tired mind, when he suddenly stop to kiss her and looked at her face with a serious expression that she didn’t know he was capable of. ……………………………………………….

“Rey…” he breathed against her face and the way he pronounced her name, strangely made her shiver. She felt overwhelmed by a confused range of emotions.

“ Rey… Plese, don’t take this in the wrong way but…Aren’t we rushing a bit about this?” he asked, his eyes burning into hers. Then he took a breath and then continued:

“Because I want you to know that I am serious about this...I mean…I really like you…So, if this is a joke for you or an act of pity…I-I…Just tell me okay? I’d rather go downstairs and void the freezer…” he said biting then at his lower lip. Rey couldn’t really believe at her ears. What the hell! It was not possible! She was doomed.

Even if he sounded gentle and kind, he really didn’t have an idea about what she was going through because of him right now. Rey wanted to scream. Instead, she focused once more on her aim and forced herself to smile at him:

“No no no” she answered quickly, terror leaping into her gut “I-I really like you too…” he lied fighting back her tears “actually I think I have already feelings for you…” and so she kept kissing him with desperation.

At that Ben Solo seemed really eager to come back making out with her, so eager that at a certain point he decided to try to squeeze one of Rey’s breasts into his right hand. At that the young girl whimpered in frustration and smashed him on the face. “Ehi…you touched my tit!” she complained.

So the Marshall looked back at her in bewilderment and answered:

“Yes…I am sorry but, it looked like a gesture pertinent to the situation…You know…” he retorted, a hint of wariness into his voice.

“Oh…Yes…Sorry…You are right…It’s just…” she answered not really knowing what to say at that point. “I…I have a difficult relationship with sex…You know…To let myself go I usually need time…Sometimes a very big amount of time and so, this way men run away…”

“So, why did you wanted to…? I thought…”

“I told you. I really like you “ she lied again “and I was afraid, you know…That if we wouldn’t have done this…You would have run away. But I am sorry… I really can’t do this right now and so… If you want to go away and not see me anymore…Well I understand… I am used to this anyway. My parents left me when I was only a child because they didn’t want me. So I couldn’t be disappointed about you more than I am about them…So you can feel yourself free to go right now…There is no need we can keep so see each other” she told him.

And for a while a little part of her asked to herself why have she to confess such things to this stranger. Maybe it was because of his big dark eyes that Rey felt so inclined to have such a confidence, maybe it was the whole situation.

Or maybe it was just her desperate attempt to keep him away from her body and from the freezer at the same time. She really couldn’t tell what it was, but her hearth started to run faster into her ribcage. So, when Ben Solo looked at her in the eyes and smiled warmly at her, she didn’t felt her happy about it. No, no, it wasn’t that…

Because Mashall Ben Solo was truly, the last man she should have wanted near her in that moment and, well…ever. He could be nice looking and tender and kind, and have a good smell, but…he was still clumsy and much more important, a real menace for her well-being and her future.

“Rey… I am not like the other men…I don’t mind to wait to have sex…” he said rushing to give her some space and finally letting her breathe.

“More over, I am shy and, usually I’d like to wait for this…to know better the girl I am hanging out with before…You know…We can do this slowly, never mind. And I am deeply sorry about your parents, but I am not planning to leave you so easily…I promise.”

And so Rey found herself much more stunned about his answer then she could have expected. As if she truly cared about him to promise not to leave her like her parents did. She really should have become mad. Her purpose was the exact opposite.

She have to get rid of him as soon as possible. And this stubborn idiot had just promised her not to leave her “so easily”.

Shit. She was doomed.

“So…As I said, I am not complaining about waiting, except when there is a freezer that’s defrosting and so, before to leave, I’d really wanted to help you to…” Ben Solo said leaving her bed to head towards the door of her room. Rey was already about to scream and grab him from his jacket to stop him, when the light suddenly turned on.

They had somehow fixed the problem at the control unit and so there was no need to void the freezer anymore, because now it was still operating. In that moment, Rey felt as if a huge weight had been brought away from her chest.

Ben Solo looked at her in confusion for a while, looking at her pale face, then with a very tender voice he said:

“Are you tired, aren’t you? Well… Maybe it’s time for me to leave…We can see each other tomorrow oaky? Just take some rest” and saying so he kissed her sweetly on the mouth.

Then he made a step backward to look at her face once more.

“Yeah…Too much emotions” Rey exhaled in a whisper feeling her legs became jelly. At that, the man said in a low voice: “Don’t be afraid… I feel it too” he reassured her brushing one of her cheek with his fingertip.

“Good night sweetheart…I’ll call you as soon as I came home, okay?” and saying so Ben Solo kissed her one last time and then he left. Rey was completely paralyzed.

She stayed still, lying down into her bed looking at the ceiling for a very long moment, her mind puzzled. She couldn’t really believe about what was just happened.

What did he said?! But after the initial shock Rey finally regained consciousness and then she wanted to scream again. What the fuck! Now she was officially dating with Mashal Ben Solo from the Guardia di Finanza and this was a real fucking mess! …………………………………………….

The next day Finn and Rose were already as desperate as Rey about the whole situation.

“How could you permit this to happen? I thought you were going to ditch him!” Finn complained for the third time.

“I don’t know Finn!” Rey answered with frustration.

“Please! You have to help me!” she begged while him and Rose were adjusting the pieces of an old sculpture to put them together. They were working at the local museums and the job was so amazing that Rey coulnd’t even believe at how lucky they had been to be asked to restore that ancient art piece.

But in that moment, none of them could really be able to concentrate about the work they were doing, because they were too concerned about the situation that had get out of Rey’s hand.

“Listen! I can’t believe at this… really!” Rey said then bringing up her I-phone and starting to reading in a high voice.

“This morning at 8 o’clock he wrote me this: **_Good morning sweetheart. I miss you._ ** Then at 8.22: **_W_ _hy don’t you answer? Did I do something wrong?_** ; then at 9.15 he wrote: **_To say I am sorry I already reserved a table for us at a restaurant._ ** Then at 9.23…”

“Oh I can’t believe at this! He truly have a crush on you” Finn commented with exasperation.

“He calls you Sweetheart… How sweet!” Rose said not quite believing at her ears.

“That’s amazing!” she said genuinely enthusiastic.

“No, it’s not!” Rey answered in annoyance at the same time with Finn.

“I don’t like him!” Rey rushed to add “I don’t want to see him anymore!”.

“Really?” Rose asked then quietly, the delusion palpable into her voice. Rey was about to answer her when Finn suddenly interrupted.

“So why don’t you leave him?”

“I can’t!” Rey answered, “Because to keep him far from the freeze I had to tell him that I like him. So now I can’t simply leave him without any other explanation. He is smart enough to understand that I was trying to hide something from him…” In that right moment Rey’s phone rang.

Another message from him. “ ** _I am really glad I met you that day. I feel so lucky to have you in my life. See you soon sweetheart”_** the message said.

“Oh no, no, no… You have to do something about this!” Finn exclaimed.

“And if you can’t leave him, then you have to find another way…” and so he started to think.

“Get left… let him to be the one to leave you” Rose suggested and in that same moment, Finn’s face enlightened with relief.

“Yes, as she just said! Good idea Rose!” he exclaimed. But then something within Rey seemed to break at the simple idea. She didn’t show it in front of her friend, but being left wasn’t something she could handle with so easily…even if it was just a pretense.

And in that moment, the words that Ben Solo had spent to reassure her about the fact that he wouldn’t have ever leave her burned into her gut. “It won’t be so easy, I assure you” she confessed then “he’s the affectionate type…” and saying so a shade of sadness passed through her eyes, but neither Finn or Rose seemed to notice about it.

“So, I am afraid you must use tougher tactics…” Finn answered with determination “and I already have some ideas about what will scare him to the point to abandon you without a second thought, believe me peanut”

And saying so Finn started to expose his plan to Rey while Rose kept to node with her head and rushed to her phone to make the first calls.

………………………………………

Fortunately Paige, Rose’s elder sister, had passed through a very particular moment of her life in which she liked to dress in the punk rock style and smoke a lot of different things.

Her clothes still smelled like hell even if their mother had washed them countless times. In particular, the pink jacket with the green dragon drew on the back and the upholstery nail all around, had never been washed since the last time Paige wore it.

So when Rey manage to put it on the short dress without the shoulder pad she was wearing, the global picture was a real terrific one.

The skirt was barely covering her butt, while on the front, her boobs were practically greeting everyone as if she wanted to say: “hello, I am Rey Organa and I am ready to get fucked by the first man at hand”.

Not to mention the vertiginous heels and the really, really heavy make-up she was wearing, or the disheveled aspect that her hair had. Rey sighed heavily looking at her image reflected in the mirror in front of her.

“Don’t worry peanut” Finn said to her in a warm voice “this is going to work! This is the last time you have to face him.

Then we could come back to normality and everything will be all right again. I promise” he said.

“It’s almost 20 o’clok. Time to go on stage” he winked at her.

“Do you remember what we have rehearse together?” he asked then “Of course” Rey answered in a low voice full of concern.

“He will be so disgusted and frightened that he will not want to have anything to do with me for the rest of his life” she announced in a sad tone.

“I can do this”.

……………………………………………………..

Ben Solo was sitting at the table of the restaurant, as elegant as ever. He was so nervous that he had to go there half an hour before to be sure that everything would have been perfect. And it was.

The place was wonderful, as he had imagined when Poe Dameron had suggested it to him.

The atmosphere was really romantic. The restaurant was placed in an ancient basement; there were dim soft lights and a pleasing silence, if it wasn’t for the soft music that was playing in the background.

The white tablecloth had been set perfectly. There were flowers at the center of the table and the white vine he had ordered at the waiter seem to be a real good one.

“Do you think I choose well?” he asked then at the man who had brought him the bottle while he was pouring the liquid into his stem glass “this is for a special woman” he said.

The waiter, straighten his back and with a wide smile answered politely: “I think she will appreciate the choice Sir”. In that same moment Rey arrived, or better, she stormed into the room weaving at him with her hands.

“BEN!” she screamed obtaining the attention of the other people sitting at their tables and rushing towards him like a fury. She wasn’t at the middle of the corridor yet that she slump onto one of the other waiters because one of her heels broke.

Ben suddenly rushed to help her and in a few seconds she was back on her feet, standing in front of him with a mortified expression on her face.

He looked at her a little stunned at the sight of her pink jacket and then he became even more incredulous when she took it off because of the low-necked black dress she was wearing under it.

Suddenly he tried to shift his gaze away from her breasts before she could notice he was gazing, and so he looked better at her face just to remain even more astonished because of the heavy mascara she had put on her eyes, while her usually soft pink lips had been remarked in a brilliant red tone. Probably noticing the way he was looking at her she suddenly complained with a little aggressive voice:

“What’s wrong? You don’t like the dress?” and in that moment he would have swear to have seen her nostrils grow larger in annoyance.

“Oh no, no, no” he suddenly answered in a low voice full of distress “I like the dress it’s…You are…That’s…” he stuttered without really knowing how to answer, his anxiety growing. “It’s just…Did you smoke? I thought you didn't... And your make-up…You…I never see you with so much of it on your face…” he articulate trying desperately not to sound unpleasant.

“Oh that!” Rey immediately retorted as if she had just catch what the problem was “Oh, I had to use a lot of it because, you know… I was pale like a corpse…” she laughed taking the glass of vine into his right hand “because I had to face a poisoning due to the abuse of some medicines, you know” she continued her explanation with a little smile as if she was speaking of the weather.

Ben was looking at her completely stunned right now.

“What medicines?” he asked then unable to avoid the question.

“Ehi, what the fuck! Mind your own business!” Rey suddenly retorted in a very offensive voice, and then she looked at him seriously and feral. A shiver run under Ben’s spine.

He exhaled sharply shifting his gaze towards the table and then he took the bottle of wine in hand and replied: “Well, you are right. I shouldn’t have asked, it was tactless. But now I am wondering if it would be a good idea to… You know…Maybe you shouldn’t drink in your conditions…” he started but right then Rey took the bottle from his grasp and poured the vine into her glass ungracefully until the rim.

Then she drank it whole in one gulp in front of Ben’s open wide eyes. She didn't even savored it. Ben blinked at her a couple of times as if to find the words, then he said:

“Hemmm…I am sorry Rey, but I don’t even recognize you…What happened? I mean…You are strange, you look like a totally different person…I am little confused” he finally admitted. At that she started to scream at him.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” she said beating her fists on the table and gaining once more the attention of the whole room upon herself.

At that, Ben remained motionless, the embarrassment palpable upon his face. Meanwhile the other people had already started to murmur something about them and their shameful manners.

“I mean…Sorry…” Rey suddenly added speaking now in a quiet voice “It’s just…For me it’s really difficult to admit this but, now I think it would be better to say it without any other preamble…” so she took a deep breath and then she said: “my psychiatrist says that I suffer by a little disturb. Now, it’s not schizophrenia, even because she gave me lots of medicines…You know…A very huge amount of medicines” and so she laughed awkwardly.

“But the point is that…she says that maybe there could be more than one Rey! Could you believe it?” she asked smiling at him in a creepy way. So, when Ben didn’t answer she kept asking him the same question repeatedly:

“Could you believe it?” and her face now was serious. “Could you believe it?” now she was angry.

Fortunately, in that moment, the waiter decided to come at their table with the first dishes that Ben had already ordered for the occasion.

“Good evening Miss…Here we have got a crudo of red crayfish as the entree and…” But the man hadn’t already finished to expose the menu that Rey had already stepped in:

“No, no, no, no. I don’t want this. I’d like to eat a Kebab please” she said in a very annoyed tone. At that both the waiter and Ben looked at her completely mesmerized.

“I am sorry but we don’t serve Kebab here” the waiter answered warily.

“So, can I have something fried then?” Rey asked. The man looked at her with a hint of fear into his eyes:

“Well…I was about to serve you this tempura of crayfish, that’s in fact, fried…With this mayonnaise made of raspberry, very delicate” he answered offering her the dish. At that Rey grabbed the food with her bare hands and put it into her mouth in one quick move. Then she ate it with her mouth open making some obscene moans.

The waiter went away with a serious face but he didn’t say a word about it. On the other hand, Ben was still looking at her in shock. “Rey…I wanted to…” he tried to say then, but Rey came back to laugh without any apparent reason.

“Don’t you find it amazing?” she asked.

“What?” Ben asked then with a hint of fear.

“To pick up the food with your fingers…It’s such a good sensation” she said taking another crayfish in hand “And you know what’s even better? Throw it away in a battle of food…Have you ever tried?” and saying so she started to do as she had just said. And so now Ben’s suit was completely covered with raspberry sauce.

He blinked at her another couple of times.

“Rey, please…Stop it!” he said. Unfortunately, the girl was quicker and so she throw the last crayfish directly into the glass of vine of the woman sitting at the nearer table. When she yelled in surprise, Rey started to laugh loudly. “Ehi, what are you doing?” the man at the table with the other woman said at Rey. Then he addressed Ben:

“You should chose better the woman you hang out with, boy. Have you looked at her? I will not be surprise to discover that she’s already pregnant by another guy. If I were you I would have already ditch her”.

At that affirmation, Rey’s hearth sink into her stomach. But she didn’t have the time to process it, because Ben had already got up from his chair and he was standing in front of that man, ready to respond. “Ehi, what did you just say? I hope I heard it wrong, because otherwise you should really apologize with her” Ben shouted at the man. He wasn’t even half of his height, and now that they were so close to one another, Ben seemed to loom upon him even more.

The other man shivered for a second looking into Ben’s black and feral eyes, but then he decided to keep arguing with him.

“That ill-manned of a bitch had started to bother us since the moment she entered this room. I am not going to apologize with her” the man stated firmly. Meanwhile all the other costumers were already focused on their quarrel. Ben looked back at Rey and then her turned towards the man.

“You are going to apologize. Now. Otherwise I am going to arrest you” he said. At that the man looked at him in bewilderment.

“Excuse me?”

“I am a police officer. And yes, I am going to arrest you because everyone here has already heard it well. You have just offended her. So now you are going to apologize!” he repeated even much feral than before.

…………………………………………….

After almost twenty minutes, Ben and Rey were on their way for the little stand that sold the Kebab in the center of the square. In the same moment she got the food in hand, she turned towards Ben and said:

“Thank you” with a little rasping voice.

“That’s nothing,” he answered a little angrily looking at her short dress and sighing heavily.

“Oh instead you acted like a real man. I am glad you did it” she singed softly and happily biting at the Kebab with hunger. Ben then gazed at her with a sad expression plastered upon his face. “I am just sorry that I wasn’t able to do more. When they kick us out, I should have called the police to…”

“Oh no, no, no. It’s fine. I was glad you didn’t do that. Even because I am a feminist…So I don’t need a man that decides for me…” Rey said in a very certain tone.

“Oh, really?” Ben asked warily still a little stunned from the previous experience at the restaurant while they were walking towards the nearer bench.

“Oh yes, I am from the feminine movement of the right wing…” she explained inventing. Ben seemed to think about it for a while, then he asked: “Excuse me, what?”

“Yes! The idea is that the uterus is mine, but you are the one to oversee it, but in the way I like…Because you man have to work and I woman I wait for you and then…we make sex as I want…Because this is equality!” Rey said then struggling to sound serious and as much crazy as possible. She couldn’t really believe that Ben was still there in her company, offering her the Kebab she wanted after all the things she had already done and said.

At this point she really didn’t know what to do to make him run away from her.

“Well…That sounds…hemmm… interesting…” he mumbled then not really knowing what to say.

“So…well…this new personality you have got…Is it going to show itself frequently or…”

“Just when I am happy” Rey rushed to answer with a smile. “So, you are happy right now?” Ben retorted.

“Of course! I feel really good in you company!” she added and for a while Ben smiled back a her in a way that Rey felt herself melt under his gaze. Despite their first appointment, this time he had acted much more normally.

He had been patient, gentle, and always so careful about her needs she wouldn’t have imagined. But then Rey suddenly remembered what her real purpose was. She wasn’t supposed to like Ben Solo’s company and much more important, he was supposed to run away from her. She had to do find a way. Think Rey. Think. He is a good guy. A serious and gentle one.

What could you do to push him away from you more that what you already did? Then she remembered. He is shy. And so she knew what she had to do.

“You know Ben…I feel sooooo good with us that I changed my mind about the sex thing…” she suddenly said looking at him with a crazy expression on her face.

Then she got closer to him and whispered into his ear:

“Why don’t we have sex right now on this bench? I’ll show you the stars honey, I swear!” and saying so she reached for his crotch without any advice and squeezed at it strongly.

“Come on! Show me how much you are happy to stay in my company” she said. At that, Ben Solo couldn’t really bear the situation anymore. It was too much even for him. He rapidly get up from the bench making also some steps backward.

“I… I am sorry…I don’t remember if I already told you that tomorrow I have to get up really early and…” then looking at his watch “…Yeah…it’s already pretty late, but… Don’t worry…Now I have to go home, but maybe we can see each other again…I am pretty busy at the moment…Maybe the next month… I’ll call you!” he said and then he started to walk alone in the direction of his car.

Rey looked at him leaving, still sitting on the bench.

She did it. She finally did it. Finn’s plan had worked! Now they were completely safe. The guardia di Finanza wouldn’t have bothered them for a little while yet. Or anyway not in the near future. So, why didn’t this sound like a victory? Why was she feeling as if she had just been defeated instead?

After a long moment in which she looked at Ben’s back while he was leaving, Rey found herself crying like a baby on that bench. Copious tears started to drop down from her cheeks.

And from the moment she finally reached for her home, completely silent and empty since the day her granny had passed away, Rey was already weeping heavily like she hadn’t done in a while.

……………………………………………………

The next day Rey didn’t received any message from Ben Solo, not even a single one. Finn and Rose were really pleased about that. And she would have to, if it wasn’t for the fact that, instead, she was feeling so sad about it as she wouldn’t have imagined before. Rey was feeling as if some animal had started to dig his nest inside of her body.

A black, giant, hole had started to form into her chest, and every time she looked at her I-phone just to find it empty too, that hole seemed to become bigger. After a week of complete silence, for a crazy moment Rey thought to write him a message. But then she had to stop herself.

That would have been crazy and illogical. She had to go on with her life and focus on her work and nothing more. Ben Solo was not a problem anymore and things had to go this way. Yes. They have to.

………………………………………………….

“Peanut…that it wasn’t suppose to go there…”

Silence. Rey had a lost gaze while she was paking the old objects into a big box.

“Peanut…” Finn addressed her for the third time that morning.

“Yes?” she finally turned towards him “what did you just say?” At that Finn sighed heavily.

“Nothing…Is everything okay? I mean, you are acting strange? Is there any problem about…You know…him? Did he contact you?” Rey looked back at her friend with a hint of sadness into her eyes, and for a while Finn feared that she was going to say yes. But then.. “No, he never wrote me after…You know, after that evening” she answered dryly.

“Good. So, it’s everything okay then?” Finn continued still a little confused about the change of attitude of the young girl.

“Yes” Rey lied with a fake smile “Let’s just put these things into the van. And so she, Finn and Rose brought all the objects outside of her garage and started to fill the little van they used to make their transportations towards the museum.

At a certain point Rey almost lose the grip on a big box.

“Ehi…pay attention to this! We shouldn’t even brought it at your home. Is was a restoration to do in loco, directly at the museum!” she said. “I am sorry…I know” Rey suddenly replied finishing to put the box at her place into the van.

They were ready to go when an old camper started to enter Rey’s courtyard at full speed, almost crushing against their van that was full of art pieces. Suddenly Rey climbed down from the van.

“Ehi! Didn’t you see us exiting the courtyeard? Pay attention! We transport some fragile and breakable pieces” she yelled at the man at the wheel of what seemed a really old camper.

When she didn’t receive any answer she reached for the cockpit a little worried, just to find a perfectly wealthy that could have been of the age of her granny, looking back at her with a serious face. He was wearing a pair of glasses but a part from that he seemed wealthy and in a good shape despite the white hair. Rey looked at him and blinked a couple of times under his gaze.

“Can I help you?” Rey asked then feeling a little puzzled. At that the man simply turned off the engine and exited the vehicle. It was an and old camper with the name Millennium Falcon marked in black on the front side.

He was followed by a very big and furry dog that seemed as old as him. Rey made some steps backward with her hearth already hammering into her chest. There was something in that man and the way he was looking at her that felt deeply scary. But it was when he finally spoked that the earth seemed to open under her feet for the second time that month.

“I am Han from Bordighera” he announced in a serious tone“and I want to talk with your grand mohter” he said directly to the point. Rey shivered a swallowed at the same time.

_What the hell! I wasn’t really happening!_

_Not after everything, she had to suffer because of that story!_

_No, no, no. I wasn’t happening._

_Who the hell was this Han from Bordighera?!_

“She’s out in this moment” Rey lied then, hoping that he could accept that answer and go back to Bordighera without any additional request. But of course I couldn’t be that easy…

“At what time did she leave?” asked Han at that point.

“It was almost 11 o’clock”. Rey improvised At that the old man looked back at her even more suspicious.

“It’s not true. Because I was right here with my camper and I didn’t see her” he retorted. “Oh that’s true…I made a mistake. She went out this morning at 10 o’clock” Rey quickly replied.

Meanwhile Finn and Rose, on board of the van, were looking at each other with anxiety.

“It’s not possible” Han said this time truly annoyed “because I was here even at 10 and I didn’t see her either at that time”.

“Well, maybe she went out at 9 or at 8… I am not sure… You know… She goes in and out over and over again” Rey exclaimed at that point with exasperation. Then she tried to smile at him and so did Finn and Rose.

But then Han’s answer arrived and it was like a blow:

“You are lying. I slept in front of your house in my camper in the last three days and I never seen your grandmother exiting your house. What did you do to Leia?” he finally asked in a truly preoccupied voice.

_Fuck! This is not happening._

_Not again! Oh, what am I going to tell him right now?!_

Rey was once more screaming into her own head, fighting with herself to smile back at the old man instead of letting herself go in a desperate plea to let her just be.

“Nothing…Nothing…It’s just that… My granny doesn’t want to talk with you” she tried, hoping he could may believe at her words. But of course, it didn’t work.

“She doesn’t want to talk with me, for real?” Han repeated Rey’s words sarcastically, almost laughing at her

“But this is not possible!” he said. Then he adjusted his hat upon his head and looking directly into Rey’s hazel eyes he concluded: “listen carefully dear. At 17 o’clock I’ll come to ring at your doorbell. If Leia isn’t at home either, well…I am going to call the police, did you get it right kid?” he asked menacingly.

Then, even without waiting for her answer, the jumped into the cockpit of the old piece of junk, suddenly followed by his dog. “Come on Chewe!” he said.

And so Rey remained stunned at her place in the middle of her courtyard, while the old man engnited the engine once more and went away on board of the Millennium Falcon, raising a big dust cloud all around her.

Immediately Finn and Rose were at her side.

“Oh…I’d really like to know what I have done so bad to deserve all of this!” Rey complained, her hands now shaking.

“You have frozen your granny peanut” Finn said grabbing her hands into his. At that Rose looked at him with a hint of disappointment.

“For real, it was you the one who suggested this” she pointed out.

And Finn couldn’t really deny it, because she was right.

“What are we going to do right now? We are still going to go to jail?” Rey asked with growing desperation.

She couldn’t really believe that she had give up on Ben Solo to avoid problems, just to see all of her problems coming back even bigger than before with the shape of an old camper named Millennium Falcon. 

It couldn’t be!

“Don’t worry girls…As always I have a plan” Finn rushed to explain.

“I just hope it would work…Because this time we really need a miracle”

 

To be continued…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys! As always thanks for reading. I'd like to know if you liked this or not and I wanted to say one thing. It is a little spoiler, but I wanted to reassure you that Ben Solo is coming back in the next chapter, so never mind :*Love you all. Kisses


	6. Chapter 6

“Damn! We almost did it!” Poe Dameron sighed heavily entering into his office.

Jassika Pava and Snap Wexely were following with their mournful expressions.

“Yes, their first appointment had been okay…I wonder what happend next” Jessika commented passing a mug full of black coffee into Poe’s hands. “I really don’t know” he answered with a sigh and then taking a sip from the mug, his brows furrowed and his expression pensive.

“This week he had been even more a smart ass than usual” Jessika breathed out in sigh.

“You mean a pain in the ass” Snap stepped in “in the last four days I didn’t even seen my wife more than a couple of hours because he gave me so much work to do that I had to stay at the office until midnight every damn evening!” “Yeah, me too” Jassika suddenly retorted in a very annoyed voice.

“As usual he had decided to pour out his frustration working harder and harder “ Poe retorted “and of course we are supposed to follow him into this madness…Oh what would I give to have only a few days to take some rest” Poe complained.

“Yes, but you know. Trying to impress geneal Snoke beating Hux to the puch is one of his living reasons” Jessika exclaimed at that point.

“And of course Snoke wouldn’t be more pleased, because Ben is a damn war machine in these cases” Poe agreed “but as usual, we do all the hard work and in the end, Hux is always the one to gain the reward”.

“I know” Jessika retorted “and so the boss became even much frustrated and he force use to work even harder and so on…” she concluded with a snort full of sadness and annoyance.

“Not this time!” Poe rushed to say “We need to know more details about what happened with Rey Organa. He was so happy when he asked me for a good restaurant. How could he change his mind about her in only 24 hours?” At that statement the others looked at him in bewilderment.

“What do you think that happened? Have you looked at him? He is so clumsy…” Snap almost laughed “Probably she ditched him, what else?”

“No…I don’t think so. He looks angry…maybe he had discovered that Rey Organa was already hanging out with another guy or something like that” Poe suggested “Maybe he had seen her buying something and not wanting the receipt…You know how much he gets angry in those cases” Jessika retorted.

“No, he is a smart ass, but not at the point to make her feel so uncomfortable…Or so I hope…” Poe mumbled the last part to himself.

“Or worst!” Snap said then “maybe he has finally discovered that there was something wrong about her tax declaration” “No, no, I made a check. It’s totally regular. No. It has to be something else…” Poe continued, his mind wondering.

“Yeah, but meanwhile we have to work on this case that looks like a real challenge” Jassika exclaimed then putting the file on Poe’s desk.

“Luke de la Vecchia. Boss of the Sacra Corona Unita. The mafioso clan number one in the area. We had lost his track during the last ten years, and now we finally know that he keeps himself hidden right here in our little town. Of course, Snoke wants to find him and deliver Luke de la Vecchia to justice. But Luke seems very good at hiding and I really don’t know where should we start…”

“Yeah…I know Jess. This new case is going to be the death of us, with our boss so focused on the competition with Hux to reach the goal first and please general Snoke. Unless…” Poe started

“Unless?” Snap suddenly asked “Unless we figure out what happened with Rey Organa and we find a way to make those two like each other again. It’s the only way he could be distracted by something that it isn’t the case of La Vecchia. Any suggestion?” Poe asked then.

“Well” Jessika started “today’s Friday. Why don’t we bring him out for a drink or two?” at her question, the whole black squadron smirked in agreement.

“Same treatment of the last time?” Poe asked then with a wide grin on his face.

“Same treatment” Jessika confirmed “I bet he will sing like a little bird”

“Me too” confirmed Snap.

“What are we waiting for?”

………………………………………

“So…You think she’s acting like that only because she is afraid to be loved?” Poe asked skeptically to a very drunk Ben Solo while they were sitting at a table of a little pub, beers into their hands.

“Yes…What do you think about it Poe?” Ben asked then. His friends take a sip of his beer and then he answered: “I think that this doesn’t make any sense…”he said looking directly into Ben’s eyes. But when both Jessika and Snap looked at him in disapproval, Poe rushed to change his words:

“I mean…Of course she is afraid…Look at you…Nobody would may guess how sensitive and romantic you are under all these…muscles and…layers of…” at that Poe turned towards his buddys looking for help.

“What Poe is trying to say, in really inappropriate way” Jessika stepped in “is that you are a good man Ben. She could be afraid because of her past experiences, but now you are the one who should show her that she could give you her trust…”

“Really?” Ben asked at that point with a wary expression, drinking in a gulp a whole glass of beer. He struggled for a minute not to burp. “And what can I do if she really hates me instead? What if she did all of that things just to have fun because she despise me?”

“No boss, you don’t have to think like that…Who could be so mean? No…I assure you…She was frightened because she likes you too much…” Jessika continued in the most reassuring tone she could use.

“For sure” Snap added but form his voice it was clear that he didn’t agree at all. he was just trying to be polite and encouraging. “Okay, but what can I do now? I didn’t call her as I had promised…I didn’t sent her any message…and It’s already been almost a week…” Ben pointed out.

“Don’t worry about that boss. If she’s the right one…I mean…If she feels the same about you, she will understand” Jessica suddenly answered.

“Now you should focus about your next move” Poe added.

“And it would be…?” Ben asked then.

“Go to her house and talk with her, frankly as you did with us just now” Jessika proposed “Girls like sincerity and you really shouldn’t keep staring at your phone hoping to receive a message from her. I may be antiquated but I prefer guys who are brave enough to look at me in the eyes when they spoke about their feelings for me” she said.

“But I can’t…To open myself to you I had to drunk at least six or seven beers and you are my squadron and…Fuck off! Why did you make me drink so much?…Dickheads!”

And at that Ben became completely pale and urged to put his hands against his mouth, then he run outside of the bar like a fury. When they heard him throwing up, the members of the black squadron felt a little guilty about the whole situation, but their boss was right, maybe the had pushed him to drink too much. And if it hadn’t been for all that alcool, Ben wouldn’t have even spoke to them about his disastrous appointment with Rey Organa.

They both know that. In that moment, they looked at each other with knowing gazes. “I told you it was too much!” Jassika suddenly addressed Poe in a very apprehensive voice.

“That’s for his own good” he suddenly retorted in a serious tone “Yes, definitively” she laughed but then still hearing Ben throwing up, she made a sneer of disgust.

“Of course” Snap said with a laugh, “So…who’s going to bring him home and clean that mess?” Jessika asked then at the two men in front of her.

“Don’t look at me Poe…I already did a lot of extra hours this week…And I am not doing this only because I am a girl” she suddenly complained as soon as Poe Dameron looked at her with his pleading eyes.

“The idea had been yours” she added “and more important, he doesn’t live so far, you can take a wolk…”

“Yeah…Of course…” Poe sighed then with a smirk “with a man of his weight upon my shoulder, it will took me a whole night…I am afraid you two will have to help”

“One for all and all for one…Get it” Snap accepted. “But I assure you that if he will throw up onto my boots, I am going to ask you to pay for a new pair”

“Okay get it… Let’s bring that Big Fuking Giant at home” he joked himself a little too drunk to stay serious.

“Then we’ll figure something out to help him with Rey Organa”

……………………………………….

“Have you done Finn?” Rey asked with a hint of impatience into her voice “Because I have to pee so bad right now, I really can’t stay still one more moment…” she said finally opening her eyes and looking directly into his friend’s ones.

“Almost peanut…Please, wait another minute…I’m almost there…” he answered with a grunt, his tongue licking at his lips while his gaze was focused on her face.

Their breaths were mixing to each other due to the closeness of their bodies. Rey sighed in frustration and closed her eyes once more, trying not to think about what her body was asking her in that moment.

And maybe another minute passed, while Finn continued to use his brush with intensity against her skin. But after a while, Rey really had to surrender. “I can’t handle it anymore…” she begged.

At that, Finn snorted angrily but he finally stepped backward to look at her thoughtfully.

“Okay Rey...But then I don’t want to hear any complaining about this, because you didn’t let me finish” Finn said passing his left sleeve upon his sweaty forehead.

“I promise!” She quickly answered getting up from the chair and running towards the bathroom under his friend’s tired gaze. In the same moment Rey closed the door behind her, Rose, who was sitting near them, sighed in apprehension and looked at Finn with a knowing expression.

“Do you think this is really going to work?” she asked.

“I mean…You just did a really good job with her face and neck. I think you are a good artist, but…do you really think that putting some wax, make-up and other stuffs upon her face would be enough to convince that man that Rey’s actually her grand mother? This sounds crazy!” she commented slightly shaking her head.

Finn sighed heavily with a scornful expression on his face putting down the brush and the painting he had just used to modify Rey’s features: “It has to work! And more over, I am far more than just a good artist! I am a restorer!” he said full of pride.

“Now Rey really resembles Leia with all that make-up on her face. The left cheek isn’t still perfect but it will be okay after another little adjustment. Then we will put the wig into her head, the glasses upon her nose and finally we will dress her up with Leia’s clothes. You will se!” he commented. Rose rolled her eyes and sighed in annoyance. Then she commented:

“I really hope you are right Finn. I think I am too young to go to jail”

…………………………………………….

And so, at 16.55 p.m. Rey was perfectly dressed up and combined to resemble her beloved granny Leia. “Finn, this is crazy, you know this, isnt’it?” she asked with her voice full of concern.

“That man will notice about it immediately! It looks like he knew my granny pretty well” Rey complained watching herself into the mirror of her room for the umpteenth time.

“I am telling you that it will work instead! Just play the part and everything will be okay. All right peanut?”

“But I don’t even know who he is. Even if he believes at this masquerade, what am I going to tell him?” she protested, a hint of hysteria into her voice.

“Just…improvise, okay? You’ll figure it out…I know you can!” Finn suddenly retorted giving her a wide fake smile as an encouragement. At that, Rey breathed out another sigh of frustration. In the last few days she had already dressed herself up a couple of times and lied as much as she had never done during her whole life, all due to the fact that she had to pretend to be someone else.

Always to put some distance between her and some other people. And she was getting sick and tired about this game. She really couldn’t bare the situation anymore, but even this time she had to endure the bitter pill and go ahead. For herself and for her friends…Otherwise they would have finished in a jail.

………………………………………….

Han walked through the courtyard and then he finally arrived in front of the house. He rang at the bell-door at 17 o’clock, exactly has he had said.

“The door’s open…please come in” a female voice said from the inside of the house. And so Han went inside  of the house.

………………………………………….

Rey was dressed up with the clothes of her granny. Finn had menaged to find her a gray wig with a chignon, and with the help of an old jumper, a long skirt and a pair of opaque collant, Rey now really resembled Leia. But what helped her the most to really look like her granny, was the hard make-up that Finn had put on her face, together with the color of her eyes that was the same of her beloved granny.

More over, the dim light of the room would have helped to dupe Han’s already not too perfect sight. Despite all of this, Rey was still begging all the saints she knew, that the man would have took the bait.

Okay then… He’s here. Stay calm. Stay calm. Just try to be cool. You are granny now.

Try to act like her. You are granny now. You are granny. Oh damn! But what do I have to do this? Rey complained into her head. Meanwhile Han had already looked at her with his suspicious gaze. Okay. He’s looking at you. Play cool. Don’t let him see how much you are afraid. Oh shit! He’s staring.

Play cool. Stay calm Rey!

“Oh my dear! So you are still alive!” Han finally explained with his voice full of relieve. And at that Rey could finally came back to breathe. But then Han came closer to look better at her and so she found herself boomed one more time. She chose to stay still on that place, but she turned towards the living room to give him the sight of her shoulders instead of her face. Hoping that this would have helped her to not being discovered.

“Of course I am” she said, pretending to be more interested in sweeping the floor, rather than greeting him properly. At that Han remained a little stunned for the coldness she was showing to him, but then he continued with the same enthusiastic voice:

“Oh Leia. We finally see each other. How are you?”. That was a simple question, she thought.

And Finn had already predicted that he would have asked, so Rey knew exactly what she had to answer.

“Actually I am feeling sick. You know…I am suffering from voice reduction at the moment…” Rey said letting out a couple of coughs, hoping that that could he enough to explain the difference, that he would have surely noticed, between her voice and the one of her granny.

“Oh, I am sorry to hear that Leia” Han suddenly answered “but you are wonderful as ever…No, I correct myself…You look even younger then the last time we met. It had been four years ago right?” he said truly mesmerized looking better at her bottom with a hint of lust into his raspy voice. At that Rey felt herself shiver in revulsion.

“It’s because I always use a specific cream for the skin against the lines due to the age, and more over I usually walk a lot to maintain my shape” she said, then she finally turned to look at him because now he was so close to her that she had no choice. She couldn’t bare his presence at her back anymore.

“What do you want Han?” she asked in a little annoyed tone, hoping with all of her heath that he could still believe at her masquerade even if now they were dangerously close to one another. At that point the old man took a deep breath and then he let out his quick answer:

“I am here because my wife is dead”. Rey listened carefully and then, when she noticed that he was still silent, not knowing what else to answer she said:

“Oh, my apologize. Condolences”. But then Han’s eyes widened in surprise:

“Why are you apologizing about that? Did you here me well? I said that my wife is dead! Don’t you understand what this means?” he asked in a still enthuasiastic voice that didn’t match at all with the meaning of his words, at least, not at the ears of the poor Rey.

“Sorry but…I really don’t understand..” she was about to say, but then Han repeated even more joyful than before: “The dead weight is finally out of the way!”.

Then he came even closer to her, bringing her left hand into his “this means that now we can finally stay together! We can get married” he announced with a wide smile. After Han’s last statement, Rey’s hearth dropped into the pit of her stomach.

What the hell! This wasn’t really happening. No. It wasn’t possible. For real?! She couldn’t have heard him well… For sure, it was a misunderstanding, wasn’t it? Immediately Rey rushed to take away her hand from Han’s solid grasp a made a couple of steps backward. She had to think now. She had to process all the informations that he had just gave her and figure out a solution. Think Rey. Think! What did he just say?

“Wait! I… You just told me that, we haven’t seen each other for the last four years, right?” she asked in a very confused voice, struggling to maintain some distance between her and that old stranger that now seemed really eager to reach for her bottom to squeeze it. But she wasn’t faster enough.

In the end he reached for her and gave her a deep fondle. When she grabbed his hands to push him away from her body, Han’s eyes became sad but he kept to look at her with the same longing. This wasn’t happening for the second time. It couldn’t be. At least, Ben Solo was a young man, a handsome one… But this…Oh this was too much!

“Don’t touch me!” she yelled at Han in a pure instinctual way. Rey didn’t really want him to get upset, but at the same time she couldn’t really bear to be touched by this old man.

“Yes…I know what are you thinking about sweetheart. I know that you are angry, but…Try to understand, please. My wife had been sick during the last years and cheating on her while she was sick felt too wrong even for me... I had to stay by her side. But now we are finally free to stay together. After all, in the 50 years of true love that we had shared, only 4 years apart not seeing each other are nothing…Am I right sweetheart?”

And so, the bomb had been unfastened. 50 years! Rey immediately thought to herself, now completely speechless. What the fuck! How could it be? Her granny had had a secret love story with this Han from Bordighera for 50 years and nobody in her family had ever know nothing about it! Oh God! She was so schoked that when Han made some other steps in her direction, trying to get closer to her for the second time, she remained completely still and didn’t move a single muscle to react at his avances.

“Do you remember the first time we met?” Han asked her then with a dreamy voice.

“We met at the Paiper Club, in Roma, the 19th April 1968 at the concert of the Pink Floyd. It had been an encounter stronger than two marriages. We were destined to stay together sweetheart, and finally, after all those years apart, we can do it!” Han said trying to reach for her chin with his bare hands.

But then Rey quickly turned towards the wall of the living room and breathed out a loud sigh.

“So…For 50 years, I cheated on my husband?!” she said in a high voice, not being able to stay quiet anymore even if she knew she should have kept her mouth closed. And now her hands were trembling just like her voice while the information Han gave her was reaching for her stunned brain and her poor hearth.

After her strange reaction, Han seemed a little taken aback.

“Ehi, what happens? Are you still blaming yourself about it? You don’t have to feel the remorse for what we have done, because between us had always been true love and…Aren’t you happy dear? Now we can finally stay together…Leia…I missed you” and saying so Han filled the gap between them without any advice. Rey found Han’s lips upon hers without the chance to do anything about it.

He kissed her, passionately, putting his hands on her shoulders to keep her sill, while his tongue asked for the access into her mouth. In that same moment, Rey would have wanted to die. That wasn’t really happening! Her granny’s old lover wasn’t actually kissing her, trying to put his old tongue into her young mouth.

Oh God! She wanted to wake up from that nightmare! Immediately Rey pushed him away with vehemence using her palms against his chest.

“No, no, no!” she screamed,

“This is not going to happen. Never again! Because between us it’s over” and saying so she made some steps backward, trying really hard not to think about the horrible feeling of Han’s lips against her own.

“But…Leia…What are you talking about?” Han asked then full of concern and confusion.

“I said that we are not getting married and we won’t ever stay together, not anymore…Because I have found another man and I already forget you” she invented hoping to sound as much mean as possible. She didn’t really want to run the risk that he could try to kiss her a second time. In the same moment she pronounced those words, Han had to sit on a chair because he felt his hearth starting to run uncontrollably into his chest.

“What? It can’t be…Leia…We have always loved each other so much…Sweetheart…I…” he tried to say, still stunned, but then Rey grabbed him from his jacket and forced him to get up.

“No, no, I am sorry but you can’t stay here right now. As I said, I have another mate now. You shouldn’t have left me alone all those years…I am sorry…Now you have to go…Come back to Bordighera before he could know you are here…He’s really jealous and if he finds you here, there will be troubles…I am sorry…Goodbye Han” she said in a rush leading him towards the door.

“But Leia… Please…Listen to me…” he tried, but Rey was so tired about all that ridiculous situation that she really couldn’t bare one more minute in his presence. “I said go away! Pretend that I am dead, okay?” and saying so she slammed the door into Han’s face and let out a deep breath full of distress, giving her back to that same door.

Then she collapsed on the floor, her legs trembling as the rest of her body. She stayed silent and motionless for a while, gazing at the pictures of her granny positioned on the shelfs in the kitchen. There was even the one of the day of her granny’s marriage with her grand father.

How could it be that all of her life had always been a façade? It seemed that everyone in her family had always lied at her about everything.

How could even her granny lie to her that way? maybe that was the reason why she had found herself alone in the end.

All the people of her family had always been selfish to the point to not caring at all if their actions would have wounded each other’s feelings. They had always pretended to love each other when the reality was another…

And she In person, was the result of two people that never loved her, and never they will. How could she even hope to be able to trust someone else about the fact that he could love her for real, if everyone seemed to wear a mask? Even her best friend, Finn had been selfish asking her to do all those things just to keep up the business…

Did he really care about her feelings when he had suggested to put her granny into the freezer? Maybe not. Even for Rose was the same, Rey thought with a hint of sadness and fear. Even that Ben Solo, she sighed, after all those kind words he had left her anyway without even making a real effort to know more about her…

The simple thought made the hole that had already formed into her stomach, growing even bigger. Rey was already to the point to cry heavily, when the door bell rang one more time, bringing her back from her sad reverie. Suddenly she got up, fighting to hold back the tears, fearing that they would have smeared the make-up that she was wearing.

Without even thinking she opened the door with determination and screamed:

“I told you to go away!” just to realize that, in front of her, just on the doorstep, there wasn’t the same man she had driven away a few moments before, but nothing less than Ben Solo.

Caught by a rush of terror, Rey closed the door on his face, just to open it a second time, after a few seconds, thinking that she couldn’t react like this in front of him.

Because that would have been even more strange and suspicious. But then Rey looked at him and she noticed that he was wearing his uniform, and also he looked really gorgeous in it and he was looking at her with his black puppy eyes…and his broad shoulders seemed even larger with that thick uniform and…She couldn’t really face him right now.

Not at all. She wasn’t prepared. So she slammed the door on his face for the third time without even waiting for him to say something. What the hell! What was he doing at her door right now? she thought. And much more important, why was her poor hearth hammering so fast into her chest at the simple sight of him? Of course it was because of the situation.

She was still dressed up like her dead grandmother, for God’s sake! And he was younger and smarter and he had also got a better sight than Han of Bordighera, that for sure!

Not to mention the fact that Ben Solo already knew her as Rey, and he could have recognized her voice pretty easily. Shit! She was doomed!

They were doomed! What did she could do now?

“Hemmm…I am sorry Madam Organa… I didn’t want to bother but…I am Marshall Ben Solo” he screamed through the door “we never met each other…Please, don’t be afraid. I am not here in my official role. I am looking for your grand daughter. Is Rey at home? I am…a friend” he presented himself in a very polite and evasive way.

“I am sorry, but Rey is at work right now” Rey yelled with the door still closed in front of her, feeling her hearth pounding into her ears.

“Okay “ he answered.

“Actually this is even better because I’d like to talk with you madam” Ben suddenly retorted, his voice strong and clear.

“I know you two are really close to each other…You even help her with your monthly retirement” he continued and at the mention of that particular thing Rey’s hearth almost stopped.

“It’s a beautiful thing, really. I wish I would have had a grandmother like you, but unfortunately my old parents died when I was only a child. I never met them” Ben continued “But don’t worry, I am not here to bother your about those things…It’s about Rey…Can I come in?” he finished.

At that Rey let the door open and run at light speed towards the couch, grabbing an old cape and putting it around her shoulders. She sat down trying to cover her body with the cape as much as possible. Then she grabbed a magazine that was laying on a shelf, and then she tried to cover her face as much as possible with the help of it.

Then she turned the light off.

“Come in” she shouted then “the door is open. I am sorry, but I don’t like the others to see me when my hair are not completely neat and…I was about to go to the hairdresser right now so…” she said hoping that Ben wouldn’t have recognized her voice. When the tall young man entered the room, Rey begged all the Gods that he wouldn’t recognize her. Then Ben looked at her with a serious face, but he didn’t say a word.

“What do you want boy?” Rey asked in a very serious and raspy voice, trying her best not to show him that she was shaking. Fortunately, Ben Solo decided to stay far enough from her, not to notice about it. He really didn’t move from the entrance. “I am sorry madam…It’s just…This is a delicate matter and…I am here because I’d like to ask you some questions about Rey” he said. At that Rey’s mind started to spinning.

“Some questions about what?” she asked with a hint of fear.

Damn! She really couldn’t keep at bay her heart now. It was pounding loudly every time that Ben Solo looked at her directly into her eyes. What the hell was happening to her? She couldn’t permit that. Meanwhile Ben had took a deep breath and adjusted himself in a straight position. His eyes wondering around the room now.

“Madam Organa…I came here because…I’d like to know if Rey…” Ben swallowed.

“Her mother didn’t love her, isn’t it?” he asked then abruptly. It was a totally unexpected question. Did she hear him well? So, he wasn’t come to arrest her or something like that? Rey looked at his looming figure holding her breath. He really looked nervous and concerned, but in a different way compared to his usual manners.

This somehow seemed to ignite something warm inside of her chest. Did he really just asked about her mother? But why? Who was this strange, awkward sweet man, for real? Why was he asking about her after their last encounter?

Wasn’t he already sick and tired about her? She had thought that he wouldn’t have wanted to see her anymore…Let alone caring about her life or her past…

But now Ben Solo was right there, in her little living room, his hat into his hands, with that serious expression on his face, looking truly concerned for a girl he had met only a few times, a girl that had tried to disgust him on purpose to push him away from her and her messy life. She didn’t have much time to process all of her emotions.

Ben was still waiting for an answer…She had to remind to herself. You are granny Leia. Stay focused Rey.

Don’t mess everything up. Say something! Think Rey.

Think. You are granny…

What would granny say about this…?

“Well…Rey’s mother went away…I mean…she abandoned her when she was just a child, and…Bot their parents never came back for her” she confessed. And while the bad memories started to re-emerge to the surface, Rey had to fight back her tears once more.

“They never asked for her, not a single call or a single stupid letter, not any message. Ever. She suffered very much. Every year, the day of her birthday she used to sit at that window” and saying so Rey pointed in the direction of the window “hoping that, maybe, in that special day, her mother and father would have magically appeared. I have never been able to convince her to go outside for her birthday. She didn’t even want to celebrate with friends because, she said, that she had to stay focused on the stree outside…In case, her parents had decided to come back she didn’t want to miss their arrive…” at that she sighed heavily “But of course, they have never shown” she concluded.

“I imagined so” Ben Solo said, pain and grief palpable into his tone of voice. “How did you know?” Rey couldn’t stop herself. “I am sorry…I know it, because I read it into her eyes” was Ben’s simple answer. An answer that made her shiver once again and feel the butterflies into her stomach.

“I had to handle with the same problem for my whole life” he finally confessed. At that Rey had to bite her lower lip to stop herself from saying something that could have had betrayed her. Stay focused! She repeated to herself. You are granny now. Stay focused. Meanwhile Ben was still talking to her:

“People like us always suffer so much… It’s a deep wound that never heals and you can see it just looking at her…She has the same sadness I have got into her eyes...Even if she has that beautiful smile that strike at your brain and you have to remember how to breathe when she looks at you like that…” Ben continued, his cheeks becoming slightly red.

Rey too felt herself blush because of his compliment, but fortunately the many layers of make-up she had plastered upon her face, prevented him to know about that.

“Hem hem…So…” Rey clarify her voice “You came here because you like my grand doughter, isnt’it?” she asked then feeling a little silly making him that question in the role of her granny.

“Not exactly” he suddenly answered causing her hearth to stop one more time.

Oh…

For a brief and delicious moment, she had thought that he…

But Rey hadn’t already formulate her thought that Ben rushed to add:

“I am here because I’d like to help her with her problem” he said. So things were like that? He felt pity for her, because they think they were similar?

“Why? Is there is a solution about that?” Rey said, almost laughing in the effort not to cry. And in fact there was a hint of sarcasm and bitterness into her voice.

“In my opinion? ...yes” Ben quickly answered looking directly into her eyes.

“I am listening” she challenged him, locking her eyes into his.

“Well…Maybe for two broken hearths like us, the solution would be really simple…” he said.

“Someone who may love you in a complete and overwhelming way. I mean someone who can love you limitless and totally and unconditionally… with his soul and body and…” he stopped to take in one deep breath. “I am not exaggerating if I say that I understood that I met the person made for me, because I know that I already love Rey this way…Totally and unconditionally, with all of my hearth…” Ben finally confessed, his face completely red right now.

And in that same moment Rey stopped to breath.

WHAT? He couldn’t have just said that. Was it truly possible?!

No, no, no. She must have dreamed, misunderstood…

Nobody had ever talked to her that way. Nobody had ever loved her in the way he was speaking about…

For a crazy moment, Rey even forgot about her masquerade and looked at him in bewilderment, fighting to contain the stream of joy and emotion that started to fulfill her chest.

“You really think this? I mean…that you love ME?... Hemmmm…I mean…HER?” she asked then in a dreamy voice.

“Of course…I love her. I know it” he answered serious.

“But…We…I mean You have just met…Or so I suppose…How many time did you hang out?” “It doesn’t matter…I already know I love her” he repeated firmly.

“And I think that maybe she would love me back… But I also think that she’s afraid because she had this big wound, deep into her hearth. And so she had created this wall all around herself as a protection…And she runs away from me pretending to suffer from schizophrenia. She already tried to test my real feelings doing her best to push me away…” he continued.

You don’t know how wrong you are about this last statement…

She thought. But maybe, you are right about the wall I build around my heart…

and maybe you are also right about many many other things…

Oh how could this man understand me so well even if he doesn’t know me?

“Really?” she asked then absent-mindedly.

“Yes…And in that moment I made a big mistake because I was angry and I went away but…the fact is that I was afraid too. I have been hurt in the past and… Nobody had ever loved me too. But then I realized that I don’t want to stay away from her…I can’t. And I may be a stupid grown man but I am sure about it…I’d like to stay closer to her, to hold her and kiss her like she deserves every day for the rest of my life…”

“REALLY?” Rey almost screamed before to manage to contain herself “... I mean… Really? So, why don’t you tell her?” her voice almost a thrill.

“Because I am mess” he said in a sad tone “I am always too nervous and…Because, if I try to make a speech like this one to your grand daughter I could at least end up burning the entire house” he laughed of himself with a sweet expression on his face.

Or so Rey thought because in that moment she wasn’t able to shift her gaze from the face of Ben Solo. His tender and very kissable face.

“So…Would you like me to tell Rey about your visit and give her your message?” she said in a rush because she didn’t really know how to contain her excitement anymore.

At that Ben looked deeply embarrassed and passing one hand into his hair he answered:

“Oh no, no…Only someone really dummy would ask to the granny of the girl he likes to give her this kind of message” then he looked at his feet and sighed “No…I have to do it by myself, even if I don’t know if she would even listen to me at this point… let alone forgive me”

“Why?” Rey asked in bewilderment, having completely forgotten that she had to use her granny’s voice. Ben didn’t seem to notice about it anyway. He looked at her seriously and then he answered:

“You know, I didn’t call her after our last encounter…even if I had promised. But I think I’ll figure something out. I am just glad to have spoken with you madam. Now I think I am going to leave you to your…whatever. I wish you a good evening” he smiled at her kindly.

“Good evening to you…Ben Solo” she murmured in a breath. When he closed the door at his back, Rey could finally let out the breath she didn’t realize she was holding. A then she finally started to cry. But she wasn't sad.

A sensation of warmth permeating her whole being. An for a magic moment Rey forget about all of her problems. Her hearth pounding rapidly into her chest, her mind dizzy and her pulse quick. He loves me. He said he truly, really, loves me!

Oh my God! What am I going to do now?

Nobody had ever loved me…

Not in they we he just said… In that same moment her cell phone started to ring insistently and when she decided to pick up, with shaking hands, she had the confirm of what she already suspected. It was him.

“Ehi…Hello. It’s Ben Solo. I am sorry I didn’t call you back last time…I know I am dick head…I am sorry, but you know, I had a lot of work to do and…” he clarify his voice “never mind…Anyway I just wanted to know if you…maybe…Would you like to…”

Ben hadn’t already finished his sentence that Rey found herself screaming:

“YES! DEFINITIVELY. YES! Whatever you want! I’d like to see you as soon as possible!”

 

To be continued...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thanks for reading! This time I wanted to share the song that played during the las scene, were Rey is finally happy because for once in her life she has someone who loves her.  
> I liked it as much as the scene itself. 
> 
> The title is: "Moriarty - Jimmy" and you can find it on Youtube :)
> 
> As usual I'd like to know your opinion about the story. Thanks :*


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Everyone! I am deeply sorry… I know I let you wait a lot this time. But I am writing other two stories at the same time, and so I needed a little more time to finish this. Please, forgive me! I hope you’ll enjoy the story. Kisses Ah… I wanted to share the soundtrack of the movie. For this chapter, the song that inspired all the following scenes it is: “Let my love open the door” by Pete Townshend. You can find the song on Youtube. Kisses :*

After Ben’s call, Rey had waited for their appointment with trepidation and happiness. And this time, without any pressure, they finally found a way to spend a normal evening. Ben brought her a bunch of flowers when he came to her house to pick her up. Not roses this time, just in case… Because the memory of the accident with the thorns was still painfully vivid in their minds, since their first afternoon spent together.

This time Rey was wearing a normal dress and a normal make up. They had programmed a super relaxing diner in a simple pizzeria. The one that Ben used to frequent in the company of the black squadron, where he was sure that the owner would have gave them the receipt. This time there wasn’t any super chic dish or elaborate table attending them.

There were just one fork and one knife and a simple white towel and a normal glass, nothing more. The atmosphere was more domestic then romantic, but this seemed to put them both at their ease. Hung up at the wall just above their heads, there was the usual tv screen showing the calcio/football game as any usual Sunday evening in that little village. The room was filled with people cheering for their team, with their glasses full of beer.

Friends, collegues and families were eating together their pizzas, cheating about their day. A nothing seemed out of place this time. Apart, that Ben, as his usual, was indeed nervous. “I should have known…On Sunday it is always like this…” Ben apologized in a nervous tone. “Like what?” Rey asked then with a little smile, looking at the screen up above.

“You know…It is pretty noisy” he answered, his cheeks a little more red for the embarassment. He was such a dummy… He knew he should have brought her in a place more quiet… usually girls didn’t like to watch calcio on tv…She was probably going to hate the whole dinner and…

“Never mind. I like it” Rey suddenly answered with an open smile, bringing him down from his reverie and self- loathing. “My friends are great supporter of the team” Rey explained, still smiling at him and then taking a sip from her glass of beer. “Really? I wouldn’t have guessed you liked calcio…” Ben answered smiling back at her, genuinely surprised.

“Oh really?” she suddenly retorted. “Yes, I thought you was much into theater, opera or…I don’t know, something like that I suppose…” “Why?” and now she seemed genuinely curious.

“Because you are an artist” he simply replied passing one hand nervously into his raven long hair “I mean… Aren’t artist interested in those artistic things, that regards art and…” Ben was already sweating…his discomfort with women still impeding him to speak properly to her, even now that they were a bit closer than before.

She laughed a little and understanding his tension she brought her hand upon his larger one and squeezed slightly at it, hoping not to scare him even more. “Ehi… Thank you for the compliment. Nobody has ever told me anything so sweet….well… Ever.

Because nobody use to consider what I do as something remarkable...They use to despise me sometimes when I say that I am an artist, as if the only important things in live were only business and finance and…” and her eyes darkened for a second at the realization of what she had just said. Rey immediately flushed for the embarasmment while Ben’s body tensed for a long, interminable moment.

“I am sorry” she urged to apologize “I didn’t mean that your job is meaningless or…”

“Oh no, no, please…never mind…I…” he said in a quiet low voice that made her feel dizzy “I am perfectly conscious that taxes and finance are not the most interesting of the subjects…” he retorted with a little reassuring smile that was able to really reassure her. “We all need more art in our lives I think” Ben continued after a while.

And so Rey couldn’t avoid to smile at him even warmly. “Yeah…I suppose we do” and saying so she drank a big sip of beer, almost voiding the glass “The fact is that I don’t know if I am a real artist or… maybe just a scavenger” she confessed, a slight shadow or red still coloring her cheeks. “A scavenger?” Ben repeated a little surprised “what do you mean with that?”. She toyed for a while with her empty glass, until he offered to her to drink from his own.

Usually she would have refused, since she had already voided a full glass of been in less than five minutes, but she had to get the courage to open herself to him. this time it was different. She wasn’t here with Ben Solo to prevent him to discover about her granny…She had accepted his invitation because, for the very first time in her life, she was really interested in someone who seemed genuinely kind with her. the kind of guy who really wants to talk with you about your life and your dreams because he hopes to share his own with you and not just to get you laid a couple of hours later.

So Rey took in a sharp breath and then she finally spoke, relizing only in that moment, that she hadn’t ever talk about it with anyone else. Neither with Finn or Rose or granny. The reason why she was chosing to share that with Ben was still a mystery even to her, but she knew, after their last encounter, that he would have been capable to understand. Or so she hoped.

“You know, my job is to restore ancient pieces of art, but sometimes I collect strange…objets” she flushed while speaking. Ben’s black eyes where already locked on her own at that.

“What kind of objects?” he investigated. “So, you collect strange objects… What kind of objects?” he asked, truly interested. At that question she giggled a little and took another sip of her beer. “Maybe I can show you…I think there are a lot of things about me that you would find surprising”. At that Ben’s cheeks reddened just like hers, while Rey’s smile warmed up. They remained silent for a while and then, she finally spoke again.

“You know… things, that usually people considers like garbage. Sometimes, thinking that maybe I could use them to create something…I collect them and…Maybe I can show you later at my home. I keep them in the attic to prevent people to see them because I am afraid that the may think I am crazy and…Anyway, thank you” she said still squeezing at his hand. At that Ben felt his chest warming with embarrassment and hope at the same time.

Was she suggesting that she wanted to know him better? Was she really giving him another chance? “You are telling me that there is more about you that sounds crazy…? I mean…more then what I had already seen?” he mocked her trying to sound bold and not as embarrassed as he was in that moment. He was obviously referring to their last dinner together, when she pretended to be mad.

Despite knowing about it, for a while Rey felt a wave of panic rising into her chest, because the memory of her poor granny hidden into her freezer, came back into her mind violently. If he just knew what he had done…he would run away from her, just like her parents did when she was only a child.

Rey’s change of expression didn’t pass unnoticed and Ben was already going to ask her what was wrong, when one of the teams at the tv, made a goal and the crowd erupted in cheers and happiness. Rey came back to smile too and the tension seemed to fade a little.

“Ehi, are you going to eat that last slice of pizza or…?” she asked him all of a sudden, pointing with her index at his plate. “You can have it… I am fine” he smiled at her. Rey was wearing such an hungry expression that he couldn’t have answered in any other way even if he had wanted to. For her he would have done everything.

She deserved to be loved, he knew that. He wouldn’t have allowed her to feel lonely anymore, not now that he was with her… there was still something about her that he couldn’t get, like the reason of her sudden mood change just a moment before. But if she only would have allowed him to stay near her, he wouldn’t have abandoned her for any reason in the world. Never. He was sure about it. Rey was the woman of his life.

……………………………………………..

After the diner, Ben accompanied Rey at her house. They were both satisfied for the food and in the end Rey’s team had won the game so she was particularly happy and her eyes sparkled with joy. But Ben still felt guilty.

He couldn’t really forgive himself for having left her after their last encounter, and after that awkward moment during their conversation he had already convinced himself that Rey’s feelings had darkened because of him. She probably was afraid and still uncertain if choosing to trust him once again. So when they finally reached for her door, the atmosphere between them had changed once more.

Despite the good dinner without accidents, and the two other couple of beers had he had drunk he was still nervous. What could he do to make her change her mind?

………………………………………..

Rey could tell by Ben’s sad expression that something was bothering him. She just hoped that her bubbling about scavenging and collecting things, if not the poor impression that she made offending his job, hadn’t brought him to the point to change his mind about her. it wouldn’t have been the first time that someone thought that she wasn’t enough, in the end. “Ehi, Ben, what’s up? Are you okay?” she asked, hoping to be able to keep away the nervousness from her voice.

At her words, the young tall man seemed to come back to reality. He lifted his gaze encountering her eyes and then he sighed heavily before saying: “Yes… I am sorry Rey….It’s just…” She looked at him with wide eyes, practically forgetting to breathe. But she waited patiently for him to speak. Please, don’t say that you are not interested in me. Please stay.

Please. I never wanted someone more than I want you in this moment. Please, don’t reject me. She begged into her head while taking other deep breaths. He was looking away now, not in her direction, his chest turning towards the street.

Not a good sign, she thought. But then she looked at his feet. They were still aiming in her direction. So maybe there was still hope. When he finally spoke, she was so lost into her own mind, that she even couldn’t get the meaning of his words at first.

“Rey?” he repeated looking a little worried, his gaze warm but confused from her silent reaction.

“Rey…Aren’t you mad at me?” he repeated with a hint of impatience into his voice “I mean…I didn’t even expect you to accept to go out with me this evening…” She immediately felt incredulous in the same moment she understand his words.

“What?” she breathed out in a very low voice. Her hearth racing into her chest. “Because I didn’t call you back and…” then he finally came back to look into her eyes and so Rey felt the butleries into her stomach seeing those dark pools of him so full of grief and worry and regret. As if he was truly able to read into her mind, to really know about her fears of being left alone and abandoned and… She simply felt overwhelmed. Nobody had ever looked at her in that way.

“I am sorry… “ he said and Rey could say that he truly meant those word, every single one. She had to hold back the tears that threatened to stream down her cheeks right now. She really didn’t want to cry in front of him, giving him the wrong impression. So she fought against herself to look as much carefree as possible.

“Oh never mind” she said forcing herself to smile “My granny told me everything about it. I understand your reasons,” she simply retorted as if it were nothing, lying to him just another time.

She obviously couldn’t tell him that it was she the one who he spoke with after Han’s visit, that day. At that Ben’s face seem to become even paler. She saw him tighten his jaw and swallow a couple of times nervously, his eyes hunted. For a brief moment, she asked herself if he could possibly have guessed something about the truth and she shivered despite the warmth of the evening.

“I knew it” he finally blurted out in annoyance, bringing one hand to his right temple to massage his forehead and cover his face with his big hand. “I didn’t have to bother your granny with…Now you probably think I am a real jerk” he said out loud as if he couldn’t hold his thoughts for himself any more. It was that that she realized how much embarrassed he sounded and that think seemed to warm up her hearth even more.

“Oh no, no, no. Please Ben. You don’t have to worry. It’s okay” she tried to cheer him up, hoping that he could feel her own joy through her words “Otherwise I wouldn’t have choose to go out with you…I mean…This evening it’s been…”

“Boring? Terrible? Annoying?” he stepped in with a sad voice.

“I was going to say amazing, but…” Rey confessed with a wide smile that completely took away his breath. “Why did you said that Ben? Did you get bored or…?” and it was her turn to be worried right now.

“Oh no, no Rey! Never! For me this it’s been a perfect appointment...Maybe the only decent appointment I have ever had in my whole life…Please, don’t misunderstand…” he urged to explain, his body already tensed “I was just afraid…” but then she stopped him bringing one hand to cup his left cheek.

“Please, Ben…stop being afraid. I really like you! Do you like me?” she asked in a whisper, her eyes so wide and her expression so sweet that he couldn’t think anymore.

“Do…Do you just said you like me?” he stuttered completely overwhelmed, not quite believing at his ears.

……………………………………………

Jesus! He must have not understood it well

For sure

Maybe he was still in his bed dreaming about the dinner and he was even late.

Because Rey was so close to his face, her beautiful freakles were greeting him with a wide smile under her beautiful hazes eyes were sparkling. Yes, he definitively couldn’t be here right now So, why wasn’t he going to wake up? Rey’s rosy lips were so near, her face so close to his. She couldn’t be really going to kiss him with one of her hands grasping at his scalp. Not at all. She wasn’t trying to push him down, so she could reach better his mouth.

They weren’t really kissing right now… Were they?

…………………………………..

She wasn’t really kissing him. Was she? His black hair were so soft into her grasp, they seemed made of silk… Oh no… She was rushing things as her usual… he hadn’t even answered to her question yet and she was already there kissing him on the mouth. The way she was pressing her body against his was speaking even too clearly what her intentions were.

Usually Rey wasn’t the kind of girl who used to get laid after one single dinner… But that wasn’t their first appointment, after all… Even if during the previous ones she wasn’t really interested in him and she had to pretend to enjoy their time together, in the end, she had learned to truly appreciate Ben Solo like the man he was.

And now that he had showed her once more, how much attentive and protective he was towards her, Rey couldn’t really stop herself. She was practically starving, craving for much contact with him.

She had never felt that way before, with anyone. That deep longing for someone she was feeling right now, wasn’t similar to anything she had ever experienced in her whole life. She wanted to be his, here and now and forever.

……………………………….

When Ben realized that he wasn’t dreaming, that she was really giving him a second chance, he finally broke the kiss. Then they stopped to look at each other for a long moment, eyes wide in an expression of pure bewilderment.

And then they finally let himself be. They didn’t remember her using her keys to open the door, or their stumbling across the staircase to reach the upper floor. Because they were too enraptured in looking into each other eyes, kissing each other, and using their hands to grasp, squeeze and taste the body of the other. When they reached for her bed their arousal was so high that they practically tear off their respective clothes in one single move.

Their making love was anything they had experienced before. It was like their souls were singing together. When he touched her skin, she felt her body melt under his hands. They moaned and whimpered together, dancing, kissing and discovering themselves all the night. When Rey finally look into each other eyes, after he collapsed at her right side, it felt really like waking up from a precious, wonderful dream. The only difference was that this time, it was true. Then Ben said:

“This was exactly what I wanted…Just…this…” his dreamy face telling her that he was still experiencing the aftermath of their intercourse. At that Rey looked into his eyes with worry and asked: “You…just wanted to get me laid?” a hint of anger mixed with fear echoing into her voice.

Immediately Ben knew he had already made another mistake. Because what he wanted to say, had nothing to do with that. As usual, he had opened his mouth without thinking straight. Stupid clumsy man! How could you say something like that to the woman you love, just a few moments after you made love with her? You are such a Jerk Solo! He blamed himself, rushing to get up on his elbows to look better at Rey’s confused face.

“No, no, no” he rushed to say then “of course not!”. But when Rey kept looking at him waiting for a better explanation to his previous statement, he knew he had to be more specific. “I would have never…” he started, but then he changed his mind. Stay focused Solo! Don’t mess everything up as usual!

“Rey…I just wanted to say that…I would have been happy just having the occasion to do this, just this…” and so he touched slightly her left cheek with his warm big hand, cupping her face into his palm, then he swallowed. And Rey swallowed too, frightened as she was that he could be to the point to abandon her like everyone in her life had always done, frightened that he had lied to her just to have sex and nothing more, frightened to be left alone again.

She looked back at him with her belly aching and her hearth racing into her chest. Please, don’t do this to me…. Not now that I was finally back believing that someone could may love me for real…

Please…I am not going to survive to this…Please…

Don’t say something like that…Please…

She begged into her head.

“Rey…I Just wanted to look into your wonderful eyes from this distance, close as in this right moment. For me it would have been enough… Just your gaze…The way you look at me… this is the best gift that anyone had ever gave me. And you…you allowed me to touch you and…I think I am really bad at speaking about my feelings, but believe me…I feel really lucky to stay here with you right now” Ben finally explained. He spoke in a low, shy tone of voice that made Rey’s already sore core, throbbing with a new wave of desire.

“You scared me…” she said then in a whiny tone “I thought you were going to leave me…”she confessed. An expression of pure grief passed into her eyes and Ben suddenly knew he had to apologize with her.

“Oh…no, no, please…Forgive me…I should have known…I…I couldn’t ever do something like that to you…Never…” he rushed to explain.

“It’s just… I don’t know…It’s… have you ever felt like finally everything in your life seems to have much more sense…I mean…Before to know you I even never thought that I could be so happy as I am now…” he confessed passing one of his big hands into his black messy hair.

“Yes…I know exactly what you mean…It’s the same for me” she answered and now Rey’s eyes were sparkling with something that he couldn’t quit recognize. She seemed to shine as if she was bathed in a pure light, her cheeks were completely red. Then she suddenly turned towards the other side of her bed, and she looked away. He immediately blamed himself. Surely he had just said something wrong. Again.

“Ehi…Please…Rey… what’s wrong?” he asked already full of anxiety, trying to reach for her eyes again. “Why don’t you look at me? Rey…Please…”

“Oh Ben…I…am sorry I…Even now…your eyes….It’s as if you could read in my mind. You can read me just looking into my eyes…How’s it possible?” she asked then cocooning even closer to him into the bed, finally deciding to turn her face in his direction. She had a shy expression pictured on her face, so sweet that Ben couldn’t believe to himself. “I don’t know” he breathed out, speechless, looking a little confused but happy.

“But I am glad you think so about me…Because I feel the same about you” he confessed. At that Rey suddenly started to kiss him on the neck and then on his jaw, on the mouth. Then they came back cuddling for another long moment. When they parted, breathing heavily into each other’s faces, she smiled at him.

“Oh Ben…Please don’t stop looking at me like this…” she said.

“Really…How can you do that? How do you know what I need every time we touch and talk and… I don’t understand…”

“Maybe that’s because speaking of women I suffer from the Holmes syndrome” he answered with a little smile “…Sherlock Holmes I mean… Not John Holmes…even if I wish…you know…”

“Who’s John Holmes?” her expression uncertain.

“Oh…really? You don’t know about that? So” he swallowed “never mind…Because what I really wanted to say is that I usually am really good at reading things wrote upon the faces of the people…and well, that’s my job to be attentive to the details…especially the emotions”

“And what are your reading upon my face right now?” she asked then full of curiosity and teasing him a little. “I read…Well…Love?” he hazarded “A little…and fear…Well…like John Holmes!” he concluded, his mouth blowing into a wide grin while he mimicked something with his arms to let her know that he was talking about size, and in particular a great size of something... They both bursted into laughter and then they came back to make love for the whole night.

……………………………………………………………………………

That same Monday morning, when Snap Waxley was yawning at the vending machine, waiting for the usual flat coffee that it dispensed, he couldn’t really believe at his ears when Poe Dameron, erupted out of his office, cell phone into his right hand, practically screaming: “Ehi boys! Look at this!!”.

In less than three seconds, Jessika Pava was already at his side, yelling like a mad woman too. “He finally took some vacation! I can’t believe it!” and saying so she mustered to the others the same message that Poe had just read first. Snap let the bitter coffee drop from his hand when he finally read the message himself. I have finally decided to go on vacation. Ben Solo. In the blink of an eyes Snap was screaming too with the same joy, smashing his wide hand on Poe Dameron’s shoulders.

“Well done Poe! You did it!” he said “I don’t know how, but damn! You did it! You finally convinced Ben Solo to let us be if only for a little while!” and now his eyes were almost filling up with tears.

“I will finally be able to take my children to the park and spend some times with them as I had promised” Jessika echoed behind his back. “Yes ma’am!” Poe suddenly retorted. He still felt incredulous himself.

“But I think we all have to thank another person for this gift” he suggested. At that the expression on the face of his comrades became of pure stupor “Oh you mean…” “Yes…I think we have to thank Rey Organa for this wonderful surprise” he smiled. And so the whole black squadron erupted in cheers and hugs, sing the praises of Rey Organa for at least the rest of the week.

…………………………………………………

They went on holiday in mountain. Together. Two weeks of pure bliss.

The hot summer didn’t seem arrest, and Rey had never been so cuddled in her whole life. Ben offered to pay for everything. He brought her out every day in a different place. They tasted lot of different kind of food together, knowing everyday something more of each other and enjoying the flowers, the fresh breeze and the beautiful nature all around them. Rey found herself enraptured by his gentle attitude, his attentive thoughts, his beautiful body.

They spoke and walked for long trips every morning, after a good breakfast, until they were too tired to do anything but making love together on the grass. Ben felt like in heaven too. He didn’t even remember the last time in which he had chosen to let himself go that way, but with Rey at his side, his once gray life had finally managed to show him its beautiful colors.

In every smile she gave him, in every gentle touch, he could feel the long lost part of himself re-surface, to a new life. He didn’t even mind about Hux stealing his job anymore. when she moaned under his touch, her sweet voice saying his name, he could feel himself melting into her, lost in that blissful place made of pure light, a light that he had thought that never existed anymore, as much blind as he was, living in the darkness.

They were sitting on a bench, admiring the sun setting at the horizon, surrounded by a wonderful landscape made of mountains and green meadows, when she asked him:

“Ben…why do you make so much for me? I can’t quite believe that I am here with you right now…No one had ever done anything like this for me before”. In that moment he looked at her with love, feeling angry at the people who choose to abandon such a good, extraordinary kind and gorgeous girl.

Bringing one hand at her side to hold her strongly against his chest, he breathed directly into her ear: “Because we are two broken souls and…Due to my experience, the first of us who gets hurt would easily run away...And I don’t really want to let you go anywhere” he said holding her even tighter. She smiled then, warmly, kissing him on the mouth with passion. “I think you are right” she said then “I guess it would be as you just said…it’s just…I really don’t know why, but I am not really as good as you speaking about this…”.

He smiled back at her with love. Then she seemed a little uncertain about her decision to speak out loud about what she was thinking, but she finally asked him what it was bothering her since the beginning:

“Ehi Ben…Maybe…Did you ever made some therapy to get used to this? I mean…Are you seeing a doctor or…?”

“You mean a psychologist?” he suddenly retorted finally getting her point. She blushed a little then but she nodded affirmatively. “Was this a bad question? Because if…” she started but then he stepped in with a light tone of voice that made her feeling much more comfortable.

“Ehi, it’s okay…I don’t mind to speak about this…at least not with you sweetheart” he smiled “Anyway, the answer is no…I have never seen a doctor…My salary wouldn’t have been enough to afford the cost… but I use to talk a lot with my toaster if you are interested…” he joked. At that Rey made a step backwards to look better at his face.

“So…You are just telling me that your therapist was a toaster?” she smiled.

“Yes…For four years” he confirmed with a small grin. “You know…One day I was alone in the kitchen waiting for my toast to be ready, thinking with myself and I casually spoke out lout, and the toaster rang right in that moment as if it wanted to agree with my statement, and so…” he kept saying struggling not to burst into laugh in front of her… But in the end, he couldn’t manage to restrain himself anymore. they both laughed and kissed each other, sipping at their drinks while admiring the last rays of the dying sun. Then the smile left her cheeks abruptly and he immediately felt that something was wrong with her.

“Ehi…Are you okay?” he asked. “Yes” Rey breathed out with a sigh. “I am fine…I was just wondering that it’s a pity that our wonderful vacation is already finished. Tomorrow we’ll have to go back home. And even if I really like that place, I loved to sleep near you and going out for a trip and…I think I’ll miss all of this…” she explained.

At that Ben’s smile came back to his lips. “If that is what was bothering you, we can always stay here for another couple of weeks” he suddenly offered to her. She looked at him with bewilderment and awe.

“Really? But…Your job?” she asked then not quite believing at her ears. She knew how much important it was for Ben to beat Hux to the punch, and he had already miss two whole weeks of meetings and strategy plans to achieve the goal to find a dangerous man named Luke de la Vecchia, who was hiding who knows where, plotting against the police.

“My job would wait Rey…I didn’t had any vacation in the last three years, so I think I can ask another couple of weeks to spend some more time with you… obviously only if you agree…There is always your job to consider…” he realized.

“Oh I think that my friends and colleagues will be able to help themselves for a few more days” she said then wide a wide grin. “I’d really like to stay”.

“We’ll stay then” she smiled. Then they look into each other eyes for a long moment, until Ben breathed out:

“You know Rey…maybe there is a way to help ourselves, to heal our wounds” he murmured into the wind. “What is it?” she asked truly interested. He sighed soundly and then answered: “being better parents than the one who generated us” She seem to think about it for a long moment. Then she finally retorted:

“Are you really convinced that it would work?”. “I don’t know…” he answered, “It was the toaster the one who suggested me this idea” he laughed and so they came back to kiss each other.

……………………………………………….

When Jessika Pava received that second message from Ben Solo, the office was already in tumult as if one bomb had just been released. Poe had been much more prepared this time.

They didn’t know how but he had imagined that Ben would have decided to prolong his vacation. He had brought some Spumante with him, in order to celebrate properly the main event.

The sound of the pop of the sugar cork echoed all around the office. There were glass smashing and cheers and papers flying all around, while the black squadron was singing out loud all his happiness about the extended period of vacation that was waiting for them all. Ben Solo wasn’t the only one who never took a single day of rest in the last three years.

At least, there was still Hux’s team who could prosecute the investigations in their absence. And anyway Poe Dameron perfectly knew that the red head, Phasma, and the other men of the white squadron that Snoke used to show at the world as his most shiny treasure, were indeed a team of jerks good at nothing.

The black squadron was always the only one to do the hard job. Without them, Hux wouldn’t have been able to discover anything at all about Luke de la Vecchia, Poe was certain about that and so he also knew they could allow themselves to take some rest and he was even too eager to accomplish that goal. Some deserved rest was what they all needed.

…………………………………………………………

When Rey finally came back, after a whole month of absence, Finn was almost on the edge of a nerves crisis.

“A whole month of vacation! I mean…who the hell can take a whole month of vacations all for himself these days?” he yelled at her in the same moment they met in the little church where they had to attend the restoration of a fresco. Rose was already at work on the platform and she greeted her with a wide smile while wearing the protective googles and the white gloves in plastic.

Rey answered to Rose’s waving hand with a wide smile and practically ignored Finn’s scowl, greeting him with a dreamy face that was only able to make him infuriate even more.

“Are you even listening to me? Rey! We should have finished the work two weeks ago!” he yelled, still not receiving a proper answer from the girl who seemed really lost in her inner world.

When she started to chant while mixing the oil tempers in a bowl, Finn had to recognize that her best friend now seemed really changed. he took one moment to look better at her. He had never seen that happy expression on her face. Did her eyes sparked that way even before or was he maddening all of a sudden? He had to say something to wake her up from that sort of trance…

“Ehi Rey… Are you okay?” he tried not quite knowing how to act in her presence anymore.

The girl brought a little brush from the table and started to sing even louder while she started to color the left side of the fresco, with attentive, slow motions.

“I am more than okay Finn… I am in love” she finally answered, her voice and mind still lost in a sort of different dimension that he couldn’t see or feel. At that he couldn’t avoid to look upwards in exasperation. He was about to answer when Rey added: “and he is in love with me too” her voice even higher and full of joy.

“Okay…I am glad to hear that, for real…But this is not a good reason to leave…”

“Oh that’s amazing! You have to tell me everything about that!” Rose quickly shouted at her from the platform up above before he could even finish his sentence.

“Wait! You girls can’t simply chit chat and make those little giggles…” he tried to say but then Rey looked at him straight in the eyes and he knew that there was more she hadn’t already shared.

“What is it?” he asked then with a hint of fear just in the same moment her hazel eyes smiled in his direction.

“I am pregnant!” she finally announced with a warm smile spreading all over her face. In that same moment, Finn felt his jaw drop to the floor and his ears felt the great, incredibly loud, scream that Rose shouted at them both from the platform.

“CONGRATULATIONS!!!” Finn didn’t dare to imagine what would have happened is she would have been right next to him. His poor ears were already aching. Not to mention the fact that Rey had just released a real bomb. “Wait…wait a minute! How did he take the notice?” Finn suddenly urged her to speak, trying to stop Rose gesticulating with his hands. Both Finn and Rose seemed to hold on their breath waiting for her to answer at his question.

“We are going to get married the next year” she revealed, her smile even wider than before.

“OH MY GOD!!!” both Finn and Rose answered then, but for very different reasons.

“This is wonderful Rey! I am really happy for you two!” Rose continued, while Finn, who was more practical, couldn’t really restrain himself anymore. “And the corpse?” he urged, not quite believing at her naivety. In that same moment, Rey’s expression totally changed. She became paler all of a sudden, as if she really had forgotten about that for the whole time and only now she was remembering about it. “The corpse?” she answered in a low moony voice as if she was still struggling with herself, not wanting to remember about a very horrible reality.

“Yes! Do you remember about the corpse of your granny? The one that you had manage to hide into the freezer with our complicity? That corpse!”

“Finn!” Rose suddenly screamed at him with indignation “She just told you that she is going to get married…You shouldn’t talk about…”

“Yes! She is going to marry a Marshall of the Guardia di Finanza! The one that she was supposed to avoid because, I really don’t think that the corpse of her granny hidden into her house, will ever be helpful for them to get along better in the future. There is a little conflict of interest in this choice. Don’t you think so?”.

Finn was practically yelling at them both right now. He had already lost his temper. Meanwhile Rey was practically sinking in a pool of self loathing, regret and fear. For the time she started to cry, Rose had fortunately been able to get down from the platform, to rushing to hug her to try to console her poor hearth.

“Finn! Look at what you did! You are a real jerk!” she complained while Rey was practically curled up in a ball, sitting on the cool floor, with her hands covering her eyes in the desperate effort to stop the tears that came down from her cheeks copiously.

And for a while Finn, felt in fact guilty, but what he was supposed to do in the end? If the girls didn’t want to remember about that, it was fine, but someone had to do something about it, wasn’t he right? Damn! But with all the men existing all around, why did she had to fall for him? Why? Now they could have been caught and spend the rest of their lives in a jail! Why didn’t they seem to realize that simple matter of fact? Finn was already to the brim of desperation, when after a few minutes of sobs and sighs, Rey finally seem to come back to reality. “I think you are right Finn” she said in a timid voice

“We have to get rid of the corpse…Because I know how much his job is important to him. It’s not just the jail. The thing that scares me the most is that, if he would may find out about it, I am sure that he would leave me…Or maybe he would arrest me before and then he would leave me” she sounded panicked

“…Anyway, we have to defrost granny and made her a funeral, so the problem will be resolved once and for all” Rey decided. At that Finn seem to finally agree to her.

“The only question is…When? Because we can’t really risk like the previous time. We have to be sure that he wouldn’t be in the nearness for the whole day” he said. So Rey seem to think about it and then she answered:

“The next Wednesday…I know he has planned to go out for a secret mission in a little town to arrest a fugitive and…he will be far away for sure” she said. Then Finn let out a deep breath and sighed.

“Okay then…We’ll do it at my house, this time. Only to be sure that he wouldn’t came back for a surprise or something…It’s okay for you?” “Okay… I think…” Rey sobbed in discomfort.

Nor that she had much more choices anyway.

And so a new plan was made…


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry for keep you waiting. I am really busy at the moment, but I try to write when I feel in the mood, and I am not too tired. So here we are with this crazy fic. This capter was supposed to be longer, but in order to post it now, I decided to split it into two parts, so in the end we will have 10 chapters and not 9. I hope you'll enjoy despite my grammar...Hugs!!!

Mashall Ben Solo had never been happier in his whole life. Finally, the emptiness of his days had been replaced by the warm smile of an angel, his new reason of life: Rey, his future wife and future mother of his child. Because yes, the woman of his life, not also loved him back, but she was already carrying his baby.

The notice when he had received it, had been like a storm in his hearth, Not because he wasn’t happy about it, because he was! They almost decided to do it on purpose after having spent the whole day talking about the future. Ben wasn’t regretting that choice. He wanted all of it.

He had craved it all of his life. Someone who could really love him, a wife, a family… But now that he was to the point to obtain all of that, to finally see his dreams coming true… he was scared. A child was a big deal. He would have to love him, of course. And he already loved him a lot. But to rise him properly, to feed him, to buy things and… In other words, he needed much more money

than the misery salary he was getting from Snoke every month. It was true that Rey had her own activity, but he also knew that she had just started it and at the moment she had barely the money to pay her bills. Money that her granny Leia offered to her as a help, while she was waiting for a loan, that he knew even too well, wasn’t going to arrive so soon. And anyway, he was the man! He was supposed to be the one to gather the money to create his own family. They really couldn’t count on the help of Rey’s granny forever. He had his dignity, after all.

And so, Ben Solo. knew that he had to find Luke de la Vecchia sooner than Hux, because it was the only chance he had to be promoted as the new commander in charge. That would have meant a new position in the Guardia di Fiananza, with far more responsibilities but also a lot more of money. And it was exactly what he aimed for.

So, returning from his vacation, he looked even more stressed than before, because he knew that he shouldn’t have rested so much. He had to act, and quickly. No more waste of time. Luke de la Vecchia was on his grasp!

…………………………………………………..

 

Poe Dameron had a really bad day the first time he came back to his office after his wonderful vacation. It started like a normal day, if not for the wide smiles that everyone was still wearing, and the endless chit-chat they all did while talking with each other about their respective trips in the open air, or their time with their families. But it all ended abruptly in the same moment their boss, Ben Solo, entered into the room.

“What are you doing guys? We are not payed to act like lazy old gossipy women. There is plenty of work to do in order to find Luke de la Vecchia! Get your ass up from those chairs and come with me! ” he shouted at them, while they were still drinking their hot coffee, sitting at their desks. They all sighed in exasperation at the same moment.

“The boss is back”. And so Poe had to drink his coffee in a rush, burning his tongue in the process and then he had to follow his super nervous boss outside the office asking to himself if there was something that he was missing about the situation, not quite understanding how he could actually be so nervous.

Maybe it was just the pressure of starting to work again after so much free time…Poe told himself. Ben Solo had always been in competition with Hux, he knew that…but fure sure, there had to be something more, and his instinct was telling him that he was about to find out what it was. In fact, after a short briefing in Ben’s personal office, the rest of Poe’s day had been even worst. ……………………………………………….

Two weeks later they finally got it.

After endless nights sitting at their desk in the office to confront the informations they gathered thanks to some informers, Poe and the black squadron were waiting in the little square, at five a.m. in the morning, just in front of the house where Luke de la Vecchia was supposed to hide.

For the occasion they had to dress up like street sweepers in order to not being recognized. And so, brooms in hands and low profile, Poe, Snap and Jessika rised their gazes at the same time when the clock of the town hall, rang announcing that it was almost the moment to intervene.

Ben Solo, their boss, spoke then into his walkie-talkie. “Black squadron is everything okay?” he asked while he was scrutinizing their surroundings from his stakeout just a few feet away from the plain sight of the square. He knew how much Luke had been smart in the past.

Nobody had been able to catch him in over four decades, and so Ben was patiently waiting inside of the police car, ready to get down at any moment and run to stop him from escaping.

He knew he had to be prepared for each eventuality, so while his men were guarding the street in front of his door, he was guarding all around. He knew for sure that Luke was at home, they had seen him coming back the evening before. They only have to wait for him to show outside, and it was done.

Yes, Ben plans were almost perfect. Almost. Because there was a thing, he hadn’t really thought about. So busy as he was thinking about finding Luke, he had completely forgotten about Hux.

In fact, the ginger head had somehow managed to know about their blitz. And so, all of a sudden, the black squadron of fake street sweepers, end up being surrounded by Hux’s men, also dressed up in the same way. The only difference was the color of their outfit.

A part from that, brooms in hands, they looked like real jerks in that little square, so early in the morning. They were too many! That could have looked suspicious even to someone that wasn’t as smart as Luke de la Vecchia! He had to do something about that or Hux was going to waste all of his efforts to capture the mighty boss of the Sacra Corona Unita.

So Ben rushed out of his car and reached his men in the main square just to find out that Hux had had his same idea.

“Hux!” he spit out angrily

“What the hell are you doing here? I have got a paper that says that I am the one allowed to arrest Luke de la Vecchia for his crimes…” and in fact Ben was already showing him the document, his black brows furrowed in disdain. The other man suddenly made an amused face and looked at him making a smirk.

“I know…But I have a paper too…and this paper is signed by Snoke in person, so I doubt your own document can have a real value right…I am the one in charge now!” he said showing him the above-mentioned document. At that Ben sighed heavily and really couldn’t contain himself anymore.

“Of course you have his sign…He’s part of your family!” Ben said then in a snarl.

“But I am the one who made all the investigations! I know it! And as usual you come only to stole me the reward for my job! So I don’t care about your shit! Get out of my way and fuck off!” he shouted. And in that same moment Hux’s bemused expression vanished to be replaced by his own rage.

“You…How dare you to address me that way idiot!” he suddenly retorted trying to sound as much threatening as he could. So Ben came closer to him, and Hux immediately realized that the other man was far much taller and threatening than him with his broad shoulders. “Who did you just addressed as an idiot?” Ben growled back.

“You brat!” “I challenge you to repeat it!” “Challenge accepted Solo! You are fucking idiot!” Hux’s own clear eyes bored into Ben’s one for a long moment, before he finally decided to make a step backwards, a little intimidate from the impressive presence of the other. At that Ben grabbed him from his collar with both his hands.

“I already told you that this is MY investigation! So if you care enough about your bones to want them all whole, I suggest you to go away now, slimy, disgusting daddy’s boy!” Ben spit out then.

“You don’t frighten me Solo!” was the immediate answer of the ginger head “you have to stay at your place like the scum you belong to and…” but Hux hadn’t finished his statement yet that one of their men shouted something in their direction.

“Ehi boss!... BOOOSSS!!!” At that both Ben and Hux turned their heads towards the main street.

“You were screaming too loud! He heard you!” an impatient Poe Dameron said then full of concern. Only then the two man raised their gazes towards in the direction he pointing at with his index, only to see a hooded man on the top of the roof of the house where Luke was supposed to hide. “He’s running away!” they both realized with horror.

“Yes! He’s running away! Look up there!” Poe Dameron cried at the others: “We have to stop him! Boss!” he addressed Ben with urgency! And in fact, Luke was about to jump on another roof with the same agility of a black panter. They have to act immediately or he was going to vanish like a shadow when it gets dark.

And then who knows how much time they would have needed to reach for him a second time. And so, Marshall Ben Solo, decided that his priority wasn’t to argue with the ginger head in that moment. As he had feared, that brat had ruined his plans and now he had to do something not wanting la Vecchia to escape.

So he let go from Hux and rushed to reach his walkie-talkie into his car.

“The mouse has exited the hole, block all the escaping ways!” he said then, announcing the new to the other men who were waiting from instructions just a few miles around the perimeter.

In that same moment, Ben saw Hux bringing his own walkie-talkie at his lips.

“The rodent is out of his nest, close off all the streets!” Hux said communicating with his white squadron, then he rushed to get into his own car.

So Ben slowly turned his head in Hux’s direction with wide eyes.

“What the fuck are you doing Hux? Now are you even copying my orders using synonymous?!” he yelled at him in disbelief.

But the red head had already managed to go away not even considering the idea to answer him.

So Ben did the only thing that he could… he shouted at his men to try to follow Luke down the streets, while he ignited the engine of his car, hoping that his black squadron could arrive sooner than Hux!

……………………………………………

Meanwhile, at Rey’s house… Finn and Rose had come early that day in order to help her to get out his granny from the freezer. That was the big day. It was time for that story to end.

The plan was the same of the previous time. They only had to wait for some hours and then they would have called a doctor and made him acknowledge that Leia was dead. That would have meant no more money, but also no more lies and no more grief… And with hew bright new life waiting for her, she was really impatient to let that sad story in the past… She was just a little concerned that something could go wrong.

And so when the three of them finally managed to put granny out of the freezer, they remained silent for a while, looking at her in agitation. The first to break the silence was Rey.

“Finn… what happens if the doctors realizes that granny is dead some months ago and not today? What are we going to do?” she asked then while she was biting at her nails, her voice a little more piercing than her usual.

“Don’t worry peanut…It’s really improbable that someone would decide to make her an autopsy… They’ll think that she is dead because she was old and nothing more.” Finn tried to sound as much reassuring as he could, but the two girls could easily notice how much his own voice sounded doubtful. “But what if it will happen?” Rey kept asking.

“It won’t happen…” Finn suddenly retorted, with a hint of irritation.

“But what if someone stops us while we are taking her to your house?” Rose stepped in then. “This won’t happen either” Finn sighed “Girls you have to be positive about this! You are worrying too much! It will be fine!” and now Finn really sounded like someone who was trying to convince himself before more than anyone else.

“You can’t be sure about this!” Rey insisted. “What if someone asks us to open the van too look inside?” “Why would he do something like that? it won’t happen!” and now Finn was really annoyed. But Rey’s furrowed eyebrows and the frown she had on her face, made him decide to stop arguing. It wasn’t a good choice having an argument with a pregnant woman who was about to mourn her only parent, this time for real…

“Okay then…” Finn sighed, and looking around in the garage, he reached for a shelf and took off a thing “we can cover her with this white sheet. If they ask us something, we can always say that it is a statue. It won’t sound strange due to the job we do” and saying so he placed the sheet upon Leia’s dead body.

“It doesn’t work well Finn. Statues doesn’t lay down like that…they are supposed to stay straight!” Rose commented then looking at the scene. “She’s right Finn!” Rey snorted.

“This is not going to work!” and so she started to think about a solution

“Maybe we could use something to lift her…Like, I don’t know…Maybe a chair with wheels. It would be more practical even in order to move her” she finally realized.

“Yeah, right…a chair with wheels!” Rose smiled enthusiastically. “Why don’t we have thought about it before?” At that Finn seem nodded veementhly.

“Yes, I think it’s a good idea! Let’s do it!”

…………………………………………………

Finn and Rose were just gone away, not even ten minutes before, than the door bell at Rey’s house rang. She was still fixing the white sheet around her torso, eyes glistening with tears, when the sound startled.

“Who could be? Did Finn or Rose forget something before to go?” Her mind was already running, formulating lots of terrible thoughts, when a painfully familiar voice resounded from the courtyard outside her house, followed by the likewise familiar bark of an old dog.

“Hello…Miss… I am sorry to bother you but…” No! No! It can’t be! Rey thought, her hearth racing into her chest. Not again Han from Bordighera!

Rey rushed towards the spy-hole of her door only to discover that her fears had a real shape and it was just a few meters from her garage where her granny Laia was, deadly dead and wrapped into a while sheet, not really looking as a statue at all. “Oh my God!” she screamed then at her still blissfully closed door.

“What are you doing here? I mean… didn’t my granny told you to go back to Bordighera?!”

“That’s true” Han sighed, his voice full of bitterness and grief “But, please miss…I am feeling sick since that day…The simple thought of not seeing Leia anymore makes my hearth sputter and…I am actually suffering from arrhythmia and… Please miss… I have to see her once more! I need to talk to Leia, now! Please!” and now his voice sounded almost pleading.

Rey found herself truly moved from Han’s statement and a big sensation of guilt hit them into her core, but she had to do something now, anything, in order to shoo him away. How was it possible that he chose that specific day to come back to their house? Undoubtedly she was extremely unlucky or maybe a superior force wanted to punish her for her sins.

There was no way it could be a coincidence this time… But now it wasn’t just for her that she had to lie and try everything she could to get out of troubles. She was pregnant, and that meant that she really couldn’t go to jail, or even her baby would have had to go there. What kind of mother she was about to become?

No, no… She couldn’t have allowed herself to be weak and to feel pity for that old man, who could have actually being a better father or grandfather than her own…No…

She had to be strong and do everything was in her power to protect her child. She just hoped that Finn and Rose could get home soon and help her out. But in the meantime she would have had to extemporize…

Oh God! Please help me… I can’t go to jail, right now…

I am going to have a baby…Please!

 

To be continued...


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys! I am back! I am deeply sorry for the delay. I tried to post this chapter as soon as possible, but I am working and studying at the same time, and so I have really a few moments to write (and even read :( :( I am really sad about it). Anyway I wanna THANK everyone who’s reading my story! Thank you very much!!! For your affection, your patience and the compliments that you made me. I have altrady wrote even the next chapter and I think I'll post it very soon. This time I don't want let you wait too much. As usual, I wanted to post a single chapter, but the I realized that it would have been too long, and in order to post something right now, I split it in two parts.  
> So I wish you good reading, hoping that you'll understand my very bad english. This time I  
> really didn't have time to read it a second time to look for the grammar... Kisses! :*

PUT GRANNY INTO THE FREEZER 09

Rey was living in a nightmare with her eyes wide open. Han from Bordighera was at her door, intentioned to meet her granny Leia at any cost while her friends Finn and Rose were still who knows where, looking for a wheelchair they probably didn’t even need.

“Okay, okay…Hemmm….But she is out now… Anyway I am sure she will be back soon!”

“Really? I can stay? Oh thank you miss! You are so kind!” Han said, and he was about to enter the house, when Rey stopped him. “No, no, no… You can’t wait for her here with me” she explained.

“Oh…why?” Han asked then with stupor “I thought…” At that Rey felt completely guilty to have to act so rudely talking to an old man, but it was a matter of life or death… And she really couldn’t go to jail.

Anyway, she tried to find an excuse not to appear like the selfish and self-centred girl she in fact truly was. Han was still looking at her, hopefully, waiting for an answer, while Rey felt her hearth hummering into her chest. It was pounding so loud that she was almost sure he could actually hear it. Too bad that the old man didn’t seem to notice about it.

Not when he looked at her pale face, nor when he saw the drop of sweat that came down from her forehead. But Rey, was truly feeling sick right now. Maybe it was the agitation for the dangerous situation she was facing in that moment, or maybe it was just the first sign that her pregnancy wasn’t just a dream, anyway, she suddenly found herself throwing up, right on Han’s shoes. “Ehi ehi….Miss… What’s going on? Are you okay?” Han suddenly asked after the stupor of the moment.

“No” she answered, sounding desperate and whiny at her own ears, more than she would have liked. That made her feel angry at herself. In fact she rushed to take back what she just said: “I maen…Yes, I’m sorry, It’s just…I am pregnant” she simply spit out. At that, Han’s face enlightened

“Oh, that’s wonderful! Congratulations!” ha said. In another moment, Rey would have been happy to hear someone saying something like that to her, but right then she only tryied to restrain herself in order not to throw up once more. Hoplessly. Because in the same moment she saw Han’s worried expression she had to puke again. Now she knew that yes, she was a real monster. “I am sorry… It’s okay…I am perfectly fine” she lied trying to close the door and shoo him away once more.

But Han from Bordighera was a gentlemen of the old kind. He wouldn’t have let a young girl alone in the moment of need for any reason in the world. And that meant only one thing. She was about to sink in a sea of shit!

“Oh, please! Let me help you miss! It would be my pleasure to clan up this mess, and prepare you something to eat and…” “Oh, no, no, there is no need” she insisted, but Han was far more stubborn than she could have had imagined.

“No, I won’t let you down miss, not in your conditions…” he stated. In that same moment, Rey heard the sound of a car entering the courtyard in front of her house. Thanks to God! They are back! She thought! In fact, the van with Finn at the wheel and Rose at his side, had just been parked right in front of her garage. Ready to charge the dead body of her grandmother to bring it away to defrost in peace. Oh shit! She had to do something and quickly!

“Oh…thank you Han” she said then pointing at the van.

“As you can see, I am not alone anymore. Those are my friends. I don’t need your help anymore. I am perfectly fine…So you can go back to Bordighera even right now…I am perfectly fine!” she said smiling, with a wide and fake smile that almost made her cheeks burn for the effort to maintain it so wide. It was a great way of escape from that situation.

That way, Han wouldn’t have bothered her, at least, for the rest of the day, letting them all the time to bring Leia’s body away to execute their plan. But then Finn and Rose, who somehow didn’t seem to notice Han’s presence, take the wheelchair out of the van, and only then they locked eyes with them.

Oh shit!

In the same moment Han saw the wheelchair, all her hopes went to hell. “I thought you just said you were fine…But your friends has just brought you a wheelchair” Han immediately commented, and Rey had to bite at her tongue not to scream some curses in the direction of Finn and Rose.

Now, Han’s already worried expression had become firstly full of stupor and now an expression of real concern. “Oh miss…Are you feeling so sick that you can’t even walk with your own legs? Is your pregnancy one of the difficult kind?” he asked.

At that both Finn and Rose looked at Rey in confusion. She would have wanted to scream! Anyhow her friends, somehow managed to understand the situation, because Rose started to say: “Oh yes, she is not very well…It’s a very difficult kind of pregnancy…And so, yes, the wheelchair is for her…We were just about to bring her to the hospital, right Rey?” she asked with a nervous smile.

“Yes…” she breathed out nervously. Then it was Finn’s turn to try to do something to distract Han from the garage to give them the time to charge Leia’s body into the van.

“Oh she is always risking to lose the baby, in fact she has to rest till the end of the pregnancy. But you know what really helps her?” he said.

“What?” Han answered then, still deeply worried for the health conditions of the only granddaughter of his beloved Leia.

“Tea… hot tea…Maybe you can help us preparing some, while we arrange the things, before to carry her to the hospital…” he suggested. “Oh certainly!” Han suddenly agreed. And so Rey brought him towards the kitchen, while Finn and Rose rushed to the garage to put Leia’s body on the wheelchair as soon as they could. Then they wrapped the white sheet they previously prepared, all around him, and then they take it on the back of the van.

Meanwhile Rey somehow managed to distract Han talking about Ben and her life, sweating a lot and hoping that her friends could do it as soon as possible. When they finally finished, Finn shouted at Rey that it was time to go. But even then Han didn’t seem convinced to leave.

“Maybe I should stay here for the night…” he said “I am sorry, I don’t want to bother you miss. I know you already have your problems. But I could provide some help, please…And at the same time, I don’t feel well about the situation with your grandmother. So I think I’ll wait for her to come back…Please let me…” he insisted once more. At that Rey felt too much exasperated to argue with him anymore. And so she said:

“Okay… you can stay” she surrendered. “But please, now we have to go” she concluded, reaching for the passenger seat on board of the van while Han remained still on the doorstep of her house. “Oh thank you miss!” he chanted full of joy. “I promise that I won’t bother you…I can help… And Oh…You don’t even know how happy I am to see Leia once more” he smiled, then he seemed to get lost into some old memories of him, and so they finally managed to leave Rey’s house without any other inconvenience. ……………………………………………

A few minutes later, on board of the van…

“You know guys… this story of your granny and that Han is so romantic” Rose said in a dreamy voice “someone who loves you for over 50 years... Can you imagine that?” she asked. But Rey was too stressed and tried to answer, so she kept watching outside the window of the van in silence, while Finn only snorted in Rose’s direction, keeping his hands tightly on the wheel. “Oh c’mon! You two are too worried right now! Think positively!” she said.

“Sorry if I am not in the mood Rose, but in the back of this van we are carrying the corpse of my granny Leia in this moment, and I am starting to feel sick for real right now” Rey blamed in annoyance. At that Rose rolled her eyes. “But Rey you should understand! It’s important to have someone who truly loves you…And now you are lucky because you have just find him, and he is a true man, not like that new boyfriend of my sister Paige... You should see him!” Rose told them in a very gossipy mood. Rey and Finn both snorted at the same time after her last statement.

“My sister has always had terrible taste about men, but this guy is the worst he brought home ever!” Rose continued. Only then Finn seemed to muster a little of interest in the matter. “Really? Why? Is he so bad?” he asked in a flat tone.

“First of all: he is old. Far much older than Paige “ she explained “He could easily be our father. He probably has the same age of our father, and he also has got a long beard and, long hair. But the worst thing is not just the aspect, but the fact that he talks and acts like a real hippy…And when he looks at me, those blue eyes…Brrrrr… I feel dizzy just thinking about him…I just hope that Paige will open her eyes one day to decide to dash him, somehow…I am tired to find out that he finished my milk before I can even have breakfast. I can’t stand him anymore” Rose started to complain.

“Oh my God Rose… I am really not in the mood the hear you complain about this guy that I don’t even know…Please shut up!” Finn retorted annoyingly, moving the gearbox. He nervously pushed a little too much even the pedal in order to accelerate. He was impatient to reach for his house. In that same moment the van reached a bump along the street and they made a little jump ahead. “Finn!” Rey yelled then with worry

“Please! Don’t go that fast! We are carrying a corpse, for God’s sake!”. “I know it!” he rushed to answer angrily “It’s just I can’t bare Rose’s stupid speeches anymore. I am tired of all this mess!” he complained. At that Rose become completely red she didn’t wait a single second to retort: “Oh really? You are a real jerk then! I can’t even talk with you that you say that I am bothering you…”

“Maybe if you try to speak about something less stupid I will be glad to hear you…” Finn answered, still pushing a little too much on the accelerator.

“Guys! Guys! Please stop!” Rey stepped in then. She was really starting to show an headache after all that stress. “I am not feeling very well…Finn haven’t you got a hat, or some sunglasses maybe? This sun is bothering me too” she asked.

“Oh yes…You can find them both on the back seat…” So Rey put them on and then she sighed heavily.

“What are we going to do with Han after we came back home?” she asked then feeling the fear siring into her at the simple thought that they could have been discovered. “I don’t know…One problem at a time. Now we have to reach for my house…” Finn answered drily. After a long moment of silence, Rey still couldn’t keep at bay her nervousness. She had a bad feeling about it.

“Finn...” she called for him.

“What are we going to do if the police stops us during the trip?” she asked in a quiet voice that could have belonged to a child looking for reassurance while he spoke to his parents. “This is not going to happen…” Finn answered then a little exasperated “We live in a little town in the middle of nowhere…How many odds are there to find a police car along this solitary street? I don’t think that…” but Finn hadn’t finished to speak yet, that the car of the Guardia di Fiananza appeared to the horizon after he turned on the left. “Oh shit!” ………………………………………………….

Poe Dameron was having a very long and stressful day. His boss Ben Solo was absolutely furious and out of his mind because they had lost track of the mighty Luke de la Vecchia. Just a few hours before they thought they were about to capture him once and for all… The young police officer of the black squadron sighed heavily passing his left hand upon his tired face, while on the right hand he kept his rifle ready to shoot as Ben commanded.

At his ear, the transceiver was silent already from a couple of hours. And that was not a good sign. Earlier, he had to take it off, not really being able to bear the screams of Ben Solo anymore. He had yelled at them since the first ray of sun had started to show in the rising morning.

He hadn’t took any rest in days, and now they were at the starting point, having to search all the ways Luke could have used to escape from their grasp. There were only a few streets left, that he could have possibly used in order to escape and put as much distance as possible between himself and the Guardia di Finanza. And now, Poe, Snap and Jessika, had been ordered to stop each car that traveled on that solitary road, in the middle of nowhere.

All around them there were only flat fields of corn, green and land. From the point they had established their roadblock there wasn’t any house in almost a couple of kilometers. The sky of September was blue and clear, and the only sounds around them were the birds singing upon the trees at the edge of the street.

Until a little yellow van came into sight at the horizon. So Poe sighed another time and prepared himself to stop the vehicle for the inspection as his boss had ordered him to do. Not exceptions! He said. I want you to inspect every single mean of transport, person or leaf that you will see traveling around you. We have to catch Luke at any cost!

……………………………………………..

In the same moment they saw the roadblock, Finn, Rose and Rey swear all the same time.

What the fuck!

“I can’t believe it! I told you! I told you! Oh my God! I recognize them! They are Ben’s collegues!” Rey screamed already in panic. “But what are they doing here, in the middle of nowhere?” Finn asked with the same terrified tone of voice.

“I don’t know” she said. “What can we do now?” “Oh we are going to go to jail!” Rose cried then “We are totally doomed!”. In that same moment, both Finn and Rey turned in her direction to yell:

“ROSE! Stop it! We are not going to be arrested! So keep quiet and breath!” “Okay” she answered then starting to breath in and out frantically. At that Finn looked at Rey into her eyes and Rey looked back at him.

“Whatever may happen, they don’t have to open the car door on the back! Just act as normally as you can…Relax…Okay?” he said. Rey nodded in apprehension.

“Okay” she breathed out “I’ll try to invent something”.

………………………………………………

The yellow van had three passengers on the front seat, Poe suddenly noticed. Two woman and a man, both very young and none of them resembled even remotely Luke de la Vecchia. Anyway, Marshall Solo had gave him the order to inspect every car, and that van could easily hide someone into the back.

“Hello guys…” he addressed her moving closer to the van, once Finn had parked it at the edge of the street “can you came down and open the back door, please? It’s a Guardia di Finanza investigation…I received orders not to let anyone pass without an accurate inspection” Poe asked.

“Hello pal…” Finn answered with a wide smile, trying to appear as much calm as he could.

“Oh really? An inspection? But… You know man, to tell you the truth we are already a little too late and, you know, we have a lot of work that waits for us and…” he started.

“Yes…We really shouldn’t stop here, even for a minute or…” But then Finn had to confront with Poe’s determined gaze and he suddenly knew that his attempt to avoid the inspection using the kind manners, was already failed. “I am sorry buddy, but orders are orders. I can’t make any exception… So, what are you carrying on the back?” he asked as the procedure established.

“Well…We…” Finn now was sweating a lot.

“We are carrying…” he blabbered. And so that was Rey’s turn to intervene. “To tell you the truth man, I am not sure that this thing you are doing is truly legitimate!” she said, and so Poe shifted his gaze in her direction, but he didn’t seem to recognized her, because he said: “Well miss, as I said, I received the order not to let anyone go, until I will be completely sure that you are totally clean, so I am sorry but now you have to climb down of the van and let me see what’s behind the back door” he sentenced.

“No” Rey suddenly retorted with determination.

“No?” Poe asked then in bewilderment, turning for a while towards Snap and Jassika that were still standing a few meters away from them. They exchanged an intense gaze, and then Poe turned once again in Rey’s direction.

“I mean…” she rushed to add “we didn’t do any violation, and as my friend just told you, we don’t have time to waste talking to you now. So…” at that Poe’s expression hardened a little but he didn’t make any move. Meanwhile, Rose and Finn had decided to remain silent and let her try to convince the as well determined officer, to let them go. After a long pause, Poe furrowed both his eyebrows in confusion and then he replied:

“Are you really trying to resist at the inspection? I am sorry, but I don’t understand. Open the door please…” and now his tone was far more authoritative than before. At that, both Finn and Rose swallowed hard, their eyes locked on Poe’s face.

“No!” Rey insisted then with determination.

“I’m not going to open it! This is not fair! You don’t have any right to…”

At that Snap and Jessika finally entered the scene. “You heard him! Get down from the van! Immediately!” Jassika ordered pointing her rifle directly at Rey’s face. “We are not joking! If you don’t have anything to hide, you won’t have any problem. Now, get down!” Snap added next, mimicking her manners. And so they had no choice. Rose, Finn and Rey had to get down from the van, and quickly in order not to make them even more upset than they already were.

“Jess, open the back door!” Poe exclaimed then in her direction. Jessika was about to do so, when Rey suddenly screamed:

“NO! You don’t have the right! this is abuse of power! You don’t have any warrant…” and so Jessika stopped and looked back at Poe waiting for instructions. “Is she right?” Jassika asked then a little confused “ Do we need a warrant to open the back door?”. At that Snap looked as perplexed as her, and so Dameron sighed sharply and shook his head in denial. “I don’t know…I didn’t expect someone that stubborn…Usually people do as we command…” and so he passed one hand through his black hair, wondering what to do. After a long pause he said

“Okay then. I’ll call the Marshall so you can talk with him about this… I assure you that he knows everything about the right procedures, and much more important, we have suspicious that Luke could be hidden inside this van, so I think we should inform him anyway” he explained. Then he reached for his walkie-talkie and opening the channel he said:

“Marshall, we have just stopped a suspicious yellow van. There is a probability that Luke de la Vecchia is on board, hidden in the back door, but the owner doesn’t allow us to inspect it…”. “I’ll come immediately” answered a voice from the other side of the channel “don’t let him go, for any reason!”.

And so, a few minutes later, a car of the Guardia di Fiananza arrived in front of the roadblock, lifting a cloud of dust right in front of Poe Dameron and Rey Organa.

And when Marshall Ben Solo climbed down from the vehicle, all the presents were already holding their breath. The treacherous and threatening expression of Ben Solo’s face vanished in the same moment he posed his gaze upon the girl that the black squadron had decided to stop. “Rey?” he asked full of bewilderment.

“Ben?” she replied full of the same disbelief. “What are you doing here?” they asked together at the same time. Only then, Poe Dameron could finally recognized her.

“Oh my… Rey Organa?” he said completely stunned remaining with his mouth open.

“What?” Jessika asked then as astonished as him.

“Solo, is she your girlfriend?” she asked then, with incredulity turning towards her boss. But Ben was too confused to say anything, so Rey was the one to break the silence in order to ask: “Ben…But…You told me that you were working in a little village to find a dangerous fugitive...” she started, her voice betraying her, since it showed all of her shock.

“Yes…Our little village that’s why I am here…I couldn’t tell you only because the information was classified” Ben answered then, still full of stupor. Then Ben turned towards Poe and asked:

“Poe…In your opinion, Rey could truly hide the fugitive on board of her van?” and his tone of voice was clearly full of sarcasm, right now. “I am sorry Solo…But I didn’t recognized her with the hat and the sunglasses…And more over, she didn’t want us to inspect the van!” Poe said then in his defence. Meanwhile Rey had managed to took off the above-mentioned sunglasses and hat. “Really? Why did you do so?” Ben asked turning towards Rey to look better into her hazel eyes.

And now his gaze was once more the threatening one of the beginning. “I am sorry Solo. It was my fault” Poe rushed to say then “please, don’t argue…I was probably overthinking when I suspected about her and her friends…Now, that we know who she is, there is no need to…”. But then Ben lifted one arm in the direction of his mouth to indicate that he wanted him to stop talking. “No, no, no. I don’t want any favoritism. You took the right decision Poe…Now, I am going to inspect Rey’s van as if it was the van of any other citizen…Let’s go!” Ben sentenced still looking at Rey’s face with determination.

“Open the back door!” he ordered. But just when Poe was about to execute his order, Rey screamed:

“NO!”. A long pause and all the eyes of the presents were on her. She swallowed hard and took in a deep breath, and then she added: “Ben…If you’ll open it, then it means that you don’t trust me”.

She was so desperate that she would have said anything not to let him see the dead body of her granny into the van. But after her statement Ben looked even more suspicious then before. “What the hell are you doing Rey? I said, open the back door, NOW!” he insisted. But then even Rose decided to say something:

“No, she is right! If you open it, that means that you don’t trust her. And if you don’t trust her, then it means that you don’t love her!”.

The two women exchanged a conspirator look with Finn, and so even him added something: “yes, and if you don’t love her it means that for you this relationship is just an affair”.

“And so it means that maybe you are already married!” Rose suddenly replied. At that point, Ben had already had enough of their dramatic little scene. In fact he screamed:

“ENOUGH!!! STOP IT!”. He snorted. Then, after a long pause, he looked at Rey, directly into her eyes.

“Rey… I completely trust you!” he said.

At his words both Rey, Finn, Rose and the black squadron take a breath of relief. So they were safe. Poe didn't want them to argue because he still hoped to obtain other holidays, while Finn knew that this way they wouldn't have been caught. 

But then Ben, unexpectedly added: “That’s why I’ll open the door. Because I perfectly know that I won’t find anyone or anything strange!” and saying so he reached for the back door and opened it in front of all the presents.

And so Rey's whole world crumbled in a single second. 

“Noooo! Noooo! Nooo!” she yelled then, desperately, reaching for the back door of the van at Ben's side. Maybe in an extreme attempt to cover that horrible truth with her own body. But it was too late… The back door of the van had already been opened and Ben's eyes had already looked inside. And so she knew that everything was going to go the hell… Her free life, her job, her dreams…Her family… Everything…!

What was she going to do right now?

 

To be continued…


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I have to make a short premise before you read the new chapter. In order to allow you to understand the joke with words that there will be at some point of the story, I have to tell you that “La Vecchia” in Italian is not just a name, but it also means “the old woman”. Here Luke’s name is in fact: ‘Luke de la Vecchia’ in order to create a misunderstanding. I know it’s kind of spoiler of the plot, but I had to tell you this in order to let you know about a little misunderstanding between our characters that will occur in the next few pages. Otherwise, you won’t have probably understand it… So sorry for the explanation, but it will be important, you’ll se. I wish you a good reading.

 

Marshall Ben Solo had just opened the back door of Rey’s van in front of all the presents…only to find him completely empty. Rey, Finn and Rose looked at the inside of their vehicle with bewilderment, then they looked at each other in horror but no one dare to say a word, until Rose let herself escape an exclamation: “Oh my God! La vecchia isn’t here anymore!” she screamed. At that, everyone turned towards her, with his eyes wide open.

Finn sweared under his breath and step on her feet with anger. Rose made a grimace and then she realized the big error she had just made.

“WHAT?” Ben asked then incredulous, shifting his gaze from the empty van to the face of the young woman and then again looking at Rey.

“So…La Vecchia REALLY WAS on board of your van!” he said, his voice a mix of stupor and anger.

“What? No…” Rey answered with conviction! “No, no, no…She didn’t mean that!” she said. And in the same moment Rose nodded and then shook her head several times, not really knowing what to do anymore.

“We all heard her! She just said so!” Snap stepped in at that point.

“She clearly mentioned the fact that La Vecchia was on the van!”. So, confusion reigned. Rey didn’t know how but the dead body of her beloved granny Leia, wasn’t on the van anymore. And that was good because, this way, Ben and the Guardia di Finanza, wouldn’t have arrested them. But where was she now? How was that possible? What happened? In the same time, Ben was looking at her with a perplexed face that didn’t foreshadowed anything good. She had never seen him with that expression before.

“I am sorry but… I really can’t get it… Why are you so interested in finding La vecchia?” she dared to ask then, not bearing anymore all that tension. Poe and the other members of the black squadron exchanged some bewildered looks before to answer. “There are more than 130 men all around this village, searching everywhere to find Luke de la Vecchia, the fugitive…The number one of the clan Sacra Corona Unita. We are looking for him, of course…” Snap finally explained. In that same moment, realization shook boh Rey, Finn and Rose. “Aaahhhhh” they exclaimed in the same moment almost starting to smile.

“Ahhhhhh, what?” Ben urged then, feeling to the brim of an outburst. He really hated not to understand the situation. That confusion had to be replaced with some clarity and soon, or he would have started to cut some heads. “That’s a misunderstanding!”

Rose finally said “We were talking about another Vecchia”. At that, Ben turned once again in her direction and with a lapidary tone he asked almost in a whisper:

“Another Vecchia?”. Then he raised an eyebrow and clenched his jaw tightly. “And…Which Vecchia did you have on the van Rey?”. This time he was talking directly to her, his eyes shimmering like embers were looking straight into her own. …………………………………………..

Oh shit!

“La vecchia…. You know… La vecchia…with a pearl earring” Rey answered then, saying the first thing she could think about in that moment. When Ben looked at her in confusion, Rose stepped in to help her. “It’s a quote to Rembrandt” she said.

“Vermeer!” Finn suddenly rectified.

“Yes! Vermeer!” Rose smiled, a wide fake smile that almost made her cheeks burn. “And…yes! We are about to restore it!” Finn continued faking a smile too. “To restore it?” Ben replied then, looking more confused at any passing moment.

“Yes…It’s a statue!” Rey finally exclaimed feeling the relief flowing into her veins

“La vecchia with the pearl earring”. Thank you Rose! “And why didn’t you say that sooner?” Ben demanded still not completely convinced about their so tardive explanation. “Because…” Rey started, but then she didn’t know how to proceed.

“Because we should have restore it at the museum…We really shouldn’t have brought it at our house” Finn concluded for her then. At that, Ben looked at Rey deeply, then he shifter his gaze once again into the empty van. And for a long moment he remained silent. When he turned once again in her direction, had a knowing, serious and sad expression on his face that didn’t admit any doubt. That was a face of a hurt man.

A man who had been hurt by someone in which he had put all of his trust. Rey swallowed three, four, five times, before to finally gain the courage to whisper:

“Ben…Why are you looking at me that way right now?”. Her voice was trembling.

…………………………………………………….

Ben couldn’t keep the grief away from his face. He perfectly know that now his expression was probably feral, he could read it into her big frightened iris.

Rey had never seen him that angry before and he was struggling not to let all of his rage explode in front of the others, in order to protect her…

A part of him still hoped that she could be innocent, even if all the evidence were against her. He had to maintain his self control and make the right questions before to explode in an outburst… He had to. For love’s sake! He had to! Breath Ben… he told to himself.

Breath… Let her explain… The others are looking at you. They are waiting for an answer…They rely on you…. It’s you the one supposed to give orders, so everything’s going to be fine… He knew that it was not… going to be fine. After what he thought he had just discovered, it was like his whole world had turned upside down, as if a earthquake had just devastated the fragile home he had so hardly built for himself…. He had been such a fool… Thinking that, for once in his life, he could have been happy for real, loved for real… His whole being was screaming. But he had to stay calm. He had to

… ………………………………………………………..

“Rey” Ben breathed out her name in a way he hadn’t ever heard before. So coolly.

“Rey …I understood…everything” he articulated each word with emphasis in a deep voice that made her shiver.

“Everything?” she automatically repeated, now completely stunned.

“Yes, everything” he simply said back. Rey swallowed one more time. “Ben?” she pleaded then in whisper, her voice so low that he probably didn’t even heard it. Her heart was pounding into her chest, faster and faster. Adrenaline flowing into her veins and panic rising into her gut.

Oh my God! He knows about everything! He is going to arrest me…. No…He is going to leave me…He probably is going to arrest me and then to leave me…. And while he thought so, she couldn’t avoid to look at him into his black eyes. they were burning like embers, right now. He hold her gaze fearless, and full of determination.

Oh Ben! I am sorry… she thought. Not knowing where to start to explain herself. I am sorry….But I didn’t know what to do when granny… She left me too soon, and then… Oh I don’t know what to do even now…

All the others were looking at them in silence, not really aware of the silent dialog that the two of them were having, simply looking into each other’s eyes. Finn and Rose were scared as death, because they perfectly know what they did, while Poe and the others of the black squadron were only deeply confused by the whole situation, not quite understanding what was happening in front of their eyes. But nobody, not even Rey’s friends could have imagined how deep their mutual distress was.

Because they love each other so much, and that… that now sounded like a big problem.

“I know what I have to do” Ben Solo said then, looking at her with a serious expression using a low, concise tone of voice that brought away the air from her lungs. Her mouth was completely dry, her muscles were all so tense that she couldn’t breath.

“Ben” she repeated then, hoping not to sound as scared as she was feeling, in vain. Finally someone decided to step in, breaking the spell of their mute conversation. “Ehi Solo…I mean…Marshall… What’s going on?” Poe Dameron asked with a hint of annoyance into his voice mixed with a hint of curiosity and confusion. Ben breathed in and out a couple of times before to open his mouth and start.

He never took away his gaze away from Rey’s face while he spoke. “Now I’ll tell you all what truly happened” he begun. The eyes of all the presents where on him right now.

“You…” he swallowed passing one of his big hands across the black raven curls of his head, then massaging the nervously the bridge of his nose. He was using his official tone of voice now, the one that belonged to Ben Solo the Marshall, not the man. “You took that statue from the museum to bring it to your house to restore it and then you lost it…Technically this is stealing a piece of art. And according to the law 42/2004, article 173…the three of you…I should arrest you…”

After his speech confusion started to rise into Rey’s mind, while, in the same moment, Finn’s and Rose’s tense expression, relaxed in an incredulous smile. But that last only for a fraction of a second. Marshal Ben Solo turned towards them just in time to catch the glimpse of their smile and his expression was so scary that they both became suddenly paler and far more serious.

“Ben…honey…” Rey tried to approach him then, a little sensation of relief spreading into her chest. But then he addressed her in that same coolly voice he used previously.

“You can call me honey when we are at home, not now. I am on service…And now you are both under arrest!” he rushed to add, turning in her direction once again, throwing a rapid glance at his black squadron with determination. Poe Dameron now, felt truly confused, as much as ever. “But…Marshall” he started “The situation is not that serious. I mean, after all, they only lost a statue…” he almost smiled with a hint of incredulity.

At that Snap Waxley and Jessika Pava nodded in approval, caught by the same bewilderment at the sight of their boss trying to arrest his girlfriend and future wife, together with her friends, all of a sudden.

“DON’T YOU DARE SAYING THAT WORD AGAIN!!” Ben yelled at them at that point, his voice full of anger. And his screamed scared the death out of them.

They jumped for the surprise and Snap almost pushed the trigger of his fifle which safety block had been previously disabled. He dry off the sweat from his forehead and let it drop into the ground taking a deep breath of fresh air trying to recompose himself. He had never saw his boss Ben that angry before… and that image was deeply scary… “Which word?” Poe asked then, now feeling even more oblivious about the true reason that had brought his boss being that furious.

“ONLY!” Ben screamed at him angrier “I ONLY helped a friend, I ONLY facilitated that procedure…and everything is about to go to hell! Did I have to remember you that, speaking about corruption, Italian people are first above all the others, in Europe? That’s thanks to your OLNY!” he explained.

“I am sorry Marshall…I really don’t…” Poe tried to say, but Ben wasn’t about to listen. “The three of you!” he commanded turning towards Rey, Finn and Rose once again “You are coming with me…NOW! We’ll discuss about this privately…” he finally decided.

At that Poe, Snap and Jassika exchanged another incredulous look, but no one dare to express his confusion. They both remained silent waiting for instruction. They didn’t have to wait more than a few seconds, in fact, Ben Solo was already ordering them :“

You, black squadron…I want you to continue to search around this area, looking for Luke de la vecchia…I will handle this by myself…” And so, nobody dared to contradict him or even made a sigh. Ben put some handcuff at Rey’s wrists, and then placed his right hand to her back, and guided her away from the street, in the middle of the farmland that stand out all around them.

Finn and Rose had to follow them in silence, until they reached an isolated place under the shadow of a solitary tree. The spikes of wheat were glowing for miles in all the directions, under the brilliant sun of that beautiful day of September.

The sky was blue and clear, and the birds were singing happily, while the cicadas were making their typical noise that, in the middle of nowhere felt strangely deafening. But all of that couldn’t have helped anyhow the bad mood that all of the presents were feeling, deep into their hearths….

After several minutes of silence, Finn was the first to dare to speak. “So…now?” he asked, not bearing anymore all that tension. “We’ll talk about your crime!” Ben simply replied drily.

“Crime? What crime?” Finn laughed nervously “As you said, we only managed to take that statue to our home. We were ONLY doing our job and then…” he started, but then Rose elbowed him into his ribcage, whispering into his ear while she was gritting her teeth to keep up a fake smile: “don’t say that word or you’ll make him angry again! He just told us that he hates people who says ONLY that way…” Meanwhile, Ben and Rey were once again lost into each other’s eyes. Not caring at all about the little argument that has just involved the two of them.

Now that they were finally alone, Ben know that he could finally speak… and he couldn’t wait anymore. He was feeling about to explode…

“Rey” he finally started to address her “I know I am a moron in love right now, but I am not blind…” he made a pause to swallow, closing his eyes as if he was about to do something really painful… And in fact he was… because saying that words to her sweet Rey, was making him feel truly ill, but he had no choice. So he took in another sharp breath and then he finally said:

“Rey, I already told you how much my work is important to me and…” he stopped once again, thinking how to put into words what he was feeling under his skin. “I am pretty good at it, you know…”

“Ben please…” Rey said then, and the way she looked at him in that moment, with those pleading big eyes of hers, somehow gave him the courage to spit out his next sentence… “Rey, I know that you put the dead body of your granny into the freezer” he told her. In that same moment, from Finn’s mouth escaped a strangled sound “what?” he asked in a piercing tone that would have sounded ridiculous in another moment. But Ben had eyes only for Rey.

“How did you…?” she said then, feeling boneless, her head light and her mind dizzy. “I had plenty of hints…All the time” he answered in a flat voice that made her shiver once again “But unfortunately, I could put all the pieces together just a few moments ago, when I saw inside of your van.

Before I had been too blind…” he explained. “Ehi wait a moment…What are you talking about?” Finn tried to dissimulate their innocence. But Ben brned him alive with a single look, and immediately shut up.

“For example, into the van there was some water everywhere, but nothing like signs that you had carried something heavy as a statue” Ben said, his voice full of resignation “and so, I suddenly knew that you were lying. But if you were lying, and you were also not involved with the la vecchia I was looking for…Who was the vecchia you were looking for? Then I remembered.

They didn’t give you the loan, I know it because I was there with you that day” and talking like this Ben looked at Rey directly into her eyes. “Then I suddenly remembered…Before to really know you, I made some researches about you and I found out that your granny was the one to pay all of your salaries every months, thanks to her retirement. Then the freezer, that day, when they took off the stream: you didn’t want me to check on the food, don’t you? Then the magazine, the one your granny was reading while I spoke with her about you. It was upside down.

Suddenly I didn’t thought it would matter but right now…It was you the one dressed up as your granny, isn’t it? All this time…You just pretended not to know about my feelings when you already knew it and…Did you use that against to me?” he finally asked now truly struggling to keep himself as much quiet as possible. But it was abvious to Rey that he had felt deeply betrayed. He was speaking like a man who’s hearth had been broken into pieces. And so Rey felt herself drowning. The air stopped to enter her lungs and her legs became weak all at once. She struggled to remain calm and not fall to her knees.

“Oh… No, please Ben…No…. I admit it… it was me… I was pretending to be my granny that day, but, that camouflage it wasn’t for you…My feelings for you are totally real “ she said with tears into her eyes and her voice broken.

“Believe me Ben… I was just…” and then he stepped in, angrily: “Then, please, explain yourself, because I really can’t get it! How could you do something like that to me? I thought it was clear to you, what was my position about criminality and immoral actions like this one…I mean… What you did is monstrous!” he shouted at her with no mercy and in that moment Rey started to cry. Not knowing what to do anymore. An hiccup escaped from her mouth before she finally admitted:

“I know I am a monster! You are totally right…” she sighed, “So, please…I want to be arrested…But please, you have to know that I love you…I never pretended about that…”. In the meantime, Rose had started to cry too, and Finn was to the brim of tears too. It was then that the serious, determined gaze of Ben Solo finally started to soften. And she unexpectedly saw his eyes starting to glowing too.

“Rey… How can you ask me something like this? Did you already forget about it? You are pregnant with my child!” he said finally showing them, all of his grief and inner agony. “I can’t…” he breathed out in a broken voice. And a tear came down from his face too.

“So are you going to close an eye?” Finn asked then with trepidation. So Ben turned towards him, an enraged expression on his face. “No!” he simply answered in a rush, but then he turned once again towards Rey and he suddenly felt the grief starting to punch him into the gut.

“Are you going to close both of them?” Rose insisted then, her voice now full of hope. “Yes” Ben finally surrendered in a whisper. But when he saw Finn’s wide smile, he said: “I mean…No…” rusing to change his answer.

At that the four of them were both full of confusion. “I don’t know” he said then with panic rising into his mind. Then, after a long moment of silence and he sighed:

“I don’t know…I have to think right now. If only there was a toaster right here… Damn!” then he started to walk ahead and backward like a caged animal. “What?” Finn and Rose looked at each other in confusion after his last statement.

“Never mind…I’ll explain you later” he simply replyed before to put some distance between him and the three of them.

“Wait for me right here…Okay? I’ll think about something and…Wait here a moment!” He walked away for a few seconds, until he was enough distant to let himself go. He screamed. Like the tormented soul that he was.

He screamed and screamed all of his disappointment towards the whole situation. Towards Rey, his boss Snoke, Hux and all the things that were making him feel so mad in that moment. He shouted at the blue sky until he had no voice left. And then he came back towards them, with his mind more clear and far less rage into his blood.

“So, what did you decide?” Rose dared to aske first when he finally was at reach to hear her voice.

“I thought about it and… “ he paused, still looking at Rey into her eyes. “I really can’t send my child in a jail” he finally decided, his voice full of grief. In that moment, Rey’s head raised to look better in his direction, hope still persistent into her hazel eyes.

“I won’t say a word about this…” Ben explained “but now you’ll go straight to your home and you’ll start to defrost granny, immediately!” he ordered while he took off the handcuff from Rey’s wrists. “and to be clear since the beginning, I won’t help you doing so! Then you’ll make her a proper funeral and we won’t talk about this story anymore! Otherwise I will denounce the thing and…” Ben hadn’t even finished his speech that panic had once again started to raise into Rey’s, Rose’s and Finn’s mind.

“But Ben I…”she started to say, but he stopped her immediately: “SHUT UP! You already said too much, I really don’t want to hear another word about this…Just go home and do it!” he ordered once again, turning towards the nowhere of the countryside not baring to look at her anymore.

“Yes but…” she bubbled not finding the words, or maybe the courage to tell him what was bothering her at that point “Ben…I have to tell you…” “I said it’s ENOUGHT!” he shouted at her with anger while he started to walk away from her “You don’t have to tell me more about that…I don’t want to know the details!”. “But Ben…What I am trying to say is that…” she started.

“I said SHUT UP!” he screamed at her still avoiding to look at her. At that point, Rey felt some anger, mixed with desperation, taking advantage of her.

“WE LOST GRANNY SOMEWHERE! WE DON’T KNOW WHERE SHE IS RIGHT NOW!” She finally managed to confess, and she had to scream because, in the meantime, Ben had already put a lot of distance between her and himself. But in the same moment he understood what he had just said, he turned towards her and he rushed to walk once again in her direction.

“You…WHAT?!” he asked full of shock, his eyes wide and his mouth open with stupor.

“We…lost her…” and it was Finn’s turn to speak this time. With his fists closed at his sides, he stood in front of Ben with a serious face. He wasn’t joking. What he just said was undoubtedly the truth. And that meant that they were truly in a sea of shit! “We don’t know how” Finn continued “but at some point… she vanished!”.

At that Ben looked at him with so much anger that for a second, Finn’s voice died in the silence of the countryside.

“We don’t know where she is right now…”Rose confirmed, her mouth was a straight line. A few more seconds required him to really understand to react at those new informations. He breathed in and out a couple of times, and then he finally exploded once more: “HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE?” he screamed “Isn’t she dead? The dead don’t walk usually!” he stated sarcastically, still fighting to believe at his own ears.

“I know, but… It’s a long story…We put her on a wheelchair and then…” Finn said, but then Rose stepped in: “I told you that the hold door wasn’t closed! I TOLD YOU!” she screamed at him “But you were all, Hurry Rose, there is no time, hurry, it won’t be a problem, I think it’s closed. Well IT WASN’T! I TOLD YOU!” she yelled, now even her full of rage.

“Oh really? So why didn’t you insist to close it properly! I wasn’t the only one there!” Finn suddenly retorted. “Because you were aggressive as your usual! I can’t really bear your bossy attitude anymore!” she answered.

“Oh really?” Finn continued. But then they both stopped to argue at the sight of a throbbing vein on Ben’s forehead. Mashall Ben Solo had to swallow a couple of times before to ask them, his last question.

“So, you are really telling me that you have just lost the frozen corpse of your granny, in an area searched by over 130 men, special corps, armed roadblocks…AND TWO ELICOPTERS???!!!”.

Finn and Rose were too frightened to answer, so it was Rey the one who dared to say: “Yes… So I think we finally get it how bad the situation is… Please… Help us!”

……………………………………………………..

A few minutes later, Ben Solo had his walkie –talkie into his hands with the channel open to speak to his men.

“Black squadron…It’s Marshall Ben Solo…This is a private communication, so pay attention. I am looking for a statue covered by a white sheet. It is a statue of great value, so whomever would find it, please, bring it to the follow address…You have to speak only with me about this, guys…Undesrtood?!”.

After the communication to the black squadron, Ben massaged his forehead with his hand, and then get on his car. Poe and the others were already on the tracks of Luke de la Vecchia, away from the van and the main street. They had come back from the countryside and they were at the same point when they met at the roadblock.

The yellow van was a few meters away, waiting for Rey, Finn and Rose, but the three of them were still looking at him with big, frightened eyes full of hope, not daring to move a single step towards the vehicle.

“So, what’s the plan?” Finn asked then. Ben had miraculously agreed to help them to find a solution for that incredibly shitty situation, in order to protect Rey and the baby, but his attitude towards them was still incredibly cold and full of resentment.

No one had dared to address him once more, until they had reached the main street. Finn could have swear he had seen some smoke exiting Ben’s ears, he was still so full of rage he looked deeply scary.

“The plan is that” Ben sighed angrily “now I’ll go back searching for Luke de la Vecchia with my men, not to make them even more suspicious than they already are, while you’ll do the same path that you did coming here on board of the van, to see if you find the body... I’ll think about something in the meantime. Then I’ll see you all at Rey’s house. Please don’t use your phones to call me, okay?! We are about to commit at least half of a dozen of crimes…” and so he climbed into his car, and turn on the engine.

At that Rey couldn’t stop herself. She run at his side and, swept away her tears, she smiled at him with a warm smile. She felt full of relieve and deeply thankful towards him.

“Ben” she started “I didn’t think it would be possible, but I now I think I am going to love you even more than before…” and her words couldn’t have been more true in that moment. “I don’t think so…” he suddenly replied icily not even turning in her direction.

And in that moment, his sentence reached her like a wet blanket.

“What do you mean?” she whispered with terror in her eyes, maybe already guessing what was about to come. “I mean that for me it’s over, between you and me!” Ben finally explained, not looking at her even then. “Ben…” she breathed out his name like a plea, but this, instead of inspire a sense of love or pity towards her, seemed to enrage him even more.

“I mean that you are just 4 weeks pregnant and I already have to commit a crime to protect my child from your stupid actions!” he finally turned towards her to shout directly into her face “He isn’t even born yet!! Jesus Crist!!! IT’S OVER!!!” and saying so he left her on the edge of the street, pushing his car at high speed in a rush, not to leave her doubt about the fact that he was just left her, emotionally and also literally.

So Rey remained alone with her grief and all her desperation, this time really falling on her knees, overwhelmed with a sense of panic, bewilderment and fear, mixed with that old sense of grief that she remembered even too well: abandonment. For the time Finn and Rose came to her side, to help her to get up, she was already crying to hard that she couldn’t breathe anymore. …………………………………………………..

In that same moment, in a police car parked not too far away from their position, a red head man was listening to a very private communication between a well known Marshall from the Guardia di Finanza and his black squadron:

"Black squadron…It’s Marshall Ben Solo…This is a private communication, so pay attention. I am looking for a statue covered by a white sheet. It is a statue of great value, so whomever would find it, please, bring it to the follow address…You have to speak only with me about this, guys…Undesrtood?!"

“A white statue?” Hux muttered to Phasma, his right hand “For sure it has to be the camouflage of La Vecchia…Probably Solo altrady knows something we don’t know. Search everywhere! We have to be faster than him! I want every men around here to look for that statue! Now!” Hux ordered to his team making a grin to Phasm.

“This will be our best action! We’ll obtain a great reward for this”. “I am sure you are right” Phasma answered with a conspirational air.

“Solo is going to have a bad day, you can bet I am right about it! Ha ha ha ha” Hux laughed. He probably wasn’t too far from the truth, even if for the wrong reasons…

 

To be continued…


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys! I finally managed to find some time to write the final chapter of this crazy story (I didn’t sleep for three nights because, truly, during the day it is impossible for me to find the time, because I am working and studying at the same time). I want to say thanks to everyone who read this and to the people who supported me despite my bad grammar, asking me to continue to write. I just hope this chapter won’t disappoint you (there will be a little of angst, I am warning you!! but also a little of fun and of course the happy ending I promised! So don’t worry!). As I said before, I am following the plot of the movie, so things had to go this way… For me it was perfect this way! I hope you’ll enjoy!!  
> Oh… before I forget! As ever I’d like to suggest you to listen to a wonderful song: “Tightrope”. This time it doesn’t belong to our movie, but it’s a song from another movie I truly loved: “The greatest showman” that I sincerely recommend to you all. It’s marvelous! I wish you a good reading! Let me know what do you think about the story and in particular about the final chapter, if you please. I’d like to know your opinion. Kisses :*

Meanwhile…

 

Leia’s dead body had been thrown out of the van when Finn had taken the last curve a little too fast. In fact, the car door on the back hadn’t been closed properly since the beginning.

So, thanks to the wheelchair she had been put on, Leia was now quickly descending down the hill, in the direction of her home. In the same moment, a gust of wind swept away the white sheet that Finn had used to envelop the corpse and it flew away. Leia was still a piece of ice when, following the path drown by the paved street, she finally reached for her courtyard as her old limbs still perfectly remembered where they belonged.

Only then, an incredibly stunned Han from Bordighera looked hard in her direction from the pilot seat of his old camper, just in order to see her speed away in front of him.

Not a single hint coming from her. The wheelchair continued to follow the street. At that Han couldn’t avoid to follow her with his gaze and cry out: “Oh my God! What’s going on?…Leia! Leia! Wait! Please… I need to talk to you! Leia!!!”. But the woman didn’t seem to notice him even then.

……………………………………………..

Han was patiently waiting with his dog Chewe seated on his lap. Han’s mind was lost in some old memory about the two of them dancing at the concert where they first met when the wheelchair finally traveled in front of him.

The porcelain skin of Leia’s bare back when he finally managed to undress her for the first time in that same old vehicle that was the Falcon, was still behind his eyelids when he sharpened his gaze in its direction. He immediately lost his breath.

“Leia!” he cried “Leia! Wait! I need to talk to you!”. But the woman continued to follow her path nonchalantly. At that point, Han climbed down the Falcon and tried to reach for his precious beloved, only to realize that Leia was far away from topping to run away from him. Only then he noticed that the wheelchair she was driving was moving pretty fast and also clumsily. He called for her another few time, then he seemed to realize that there was something wrong.

“Oh my…Chewe! She’s going to go in the direction of the ravine! Probably her chair has got some problems…She is not going to stop…We have to do something! Leia! Leia! Sweetheart…Don’t worry… I am coming!” he screamed then starting to running in her direction. “Sweetheart…Don’t be afraid…I am here now!”

………………………………………………..

The wheelchair was running fast down the hill and Hun was running as well at its heels.

He had to stop it in order to save Leia. Probably, the breaks of that ramshackle object didn’t work anymore. It had been a lucky strike for him to be there in the right moment, otherwise Leia would have been in real troubles, and she would probably have died falling into the ravine that was waiting not too far from there. But he was there and everything was going to be fine.

Han didn’t know why Leia was using a wheelchair. She had never mentioned the fact that she was sick before, nor the last time he saw her, when he had the impression that she was in a very good shape.

Maybe that was the real reason of her decision about the two of them. Maybe she was sick and didn’t want to tell him about it, in order to protect him from other grief.

That would have explained her weird bewilderment, the last time they met. They would have talked about everything and maybe argued a lot as ever, but in the end, Han knew into his hearth, that Leia would have chosen to stay with him. Because they belonged to each other. Han hadn’t any doubt about that.

“Oh Leia” he thought while he desperately run towards her, as faster as his old legs allowed him. Finally the wheelchair decelerate and Han could stop its run definitively.

Out of breath, he reached for her hand, full of hope and longing and said: “I’ll never leave you, sweetheart… I don’t care about the bad moments that there will be, because we lost even too much time…I promise you…From now on I’ll stay with you forever!”. In the same moment his big callous hand touched Leia’s icy ones, Han’s hearth froze. Because her and was as cold and stiff as a stone.

“Leia…You are frozen! Oh my…What did they do to you Princess?”.

The realization came with so much horror and grief that Han could merely manage to search in the pocket of his jacket and reach for his cell phone to look for help, that his chest was pierced by a dull pain, so strong to force him to fall on his knees. The phone fell on the ground too, and Chewe, that had followed him during the run, started to bark desperately in his direction. But Han had already kept his promise and reached Leia in the eternal sleep of the world of the dead because of an hearth stroke. ………………………………………………………

Rey had never felt so desperate before. Her hands were shaking and her mind was totally blank, full of shock. She stared at the void in front of her remaining still and expressionless for as long as Finn’s patience allowed her to do.

Then his friend and co-worker couldn’t remain calm anymore. Despite Rose’s pleas to let her be a few more time, he couldn’t restrain himself anymore. They were all in big troubles and to wait also would have meant to risk everything!

“Ehy peanut you have to react! This is not the right moment to lose your mind!” he started touching her shoulders with his warm hand in an attempt to be sympathetic. But when the girl didn’t even raised her gaze to look at him, Finn suddenly lost his already precarious self-control. “Rey! Please! This is not the end of the world! But if you continued to act this way….

At that, his friend finally seemed to recover, only to raise her eyebrows a throw him an angry glance.

“How can you say so?” she asked “I have just lost the men of my life, my future husband and also the father of my son!” and saying so her voice became piercing and whiny.

“But, how many men where you hanging out with at the same time?” Rose stepped in at that point, looking truly surprised. After her statement, Finn rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation while Rey sighed heavily and sniffled. “Just one! And he was perfect and now I lost him!” she cried once again bursting into tears and losing her breath.

The situation was truly desperate and he seemed to been the only one truly concerned about the fact that, if they had been discovered they would have gone to jail. He didn’t truly cared about the broken hearth of his best friend at that point. To get out from troubles came first! “Rey!” he urged then, his hands still on her shoulders while he looked directly into her eyes with his black ones.

“This is not the right moment for this… You have to compose yourself!” his tone of voice now far more peremptory than before. Unfortunately, this made her cry even louder. At that point, Finn knew it was useless to insist. It would have been only a waste of his precious time trying to convince Rey to pay him attention. Finn’s gaze locked then with Rose’s one.

The other girl looked desperately worried too and immediately they knew what to do. “Rey” Finn started then “Listen to me! Now me and Rose will try to find granny, okay? To save the situation… We’ll take the van to be faster…You can stay here and recompose yourself okay?” he asked persuasively.

At that, Rose slightly nodded in assent smiling in her direction, but at the same time she whispered at Finn: “But, we can’t leave her alone right now! She has just lost her family once again. We should stay here in order to cheer her up!”.

At that Finn’s own smile widened while he looked at Rey.

“If we don’t start immediately to look for Leia’s body, I assure you that this won’t be a problem anymore. Because we all will be adopted by the correptional system!”. That was enough to convince Rose to leave Rey alone. “It’s for your own sake peanut!” Finn excused himself once again, leading in the direction of the van.

“Hurry up Rose!” he screamed once he was sitting in the pilot seat. “I am sorry dear…” Rose whispered then at Rey, hugging her tightly one last time, before to reach for the van. “We’ll talk about Ben in another moment, okay? I promise!” she said. Rey didn’t seem to care about them even when Finn finally ignited the engine.

She continued to look straight in front of her, expressionless, feeling boneless, with her head light and a growing feeling of sickness that was making her wanting to puke at any time. In the blink of an eye she found herself completely alone, in a desert street in the middle of the countryside, under the sun of September.

“What do I do now? Why everybody leaves me alone, in the end?”

…………………………………………………

Finn and Rose were on the tracks of Leia and the wheelchair on board of the van.

The young boy was so nervous that Rose had chosen to be the one to drive. But that move had only earned her more stress because now, one moment Finn was yelling at her to go faster, and the next moment he was screaming to slow down because, maybe, he had seen something in the clearing on the left. The first three times, Rose had to slam on the breaks in order to stop the van before Finn could get completely mad.

The fourth one, hearing all the bad words he was throwing at her, criticizing almost every single action she made, Rose burst into tears and stopped the vehicle. “Rose! Why the hell did you stopped?” Finn suddenly asked, his voice full of anger and agitation.

“Because I am tired to hear you yelling at me…You are truly mean…I am scared too…I can’t bare you anymore Finn! Stop it!” she complained. Unfortunately, instead to understand her point of view, Finn seemed to become even angrier.

“Oh my God Rose! This is not the right time for this kind of arguments… You make me really nervous with your bad driving and…”

“It’s not my bad driving the problem, it’s you!” she suddenly replied “You are too nervous!” and so she swept away some tears from her face using the sleeve of her left arm.

“Of course I am nervous!” Finn said then

“We have to find Leia or…I don’t want even think about that right now…” and while he spoke he struggled to remain cool to not explode another time and yell at Rose something worst.

“Finn!” she said then looking at something behind him, in the direction of the open countryside. But the man was too focused on his own preoccupation to pay her attention, so he continued “Rose I need you to be attentive, okay? You can’t continue to distract yourself with stupid things and…”

“Finn!” she instead then, moving her chin up in order to indicate him to turn and take a look behind him.

At that, Finn breathed in and out a couple of times in frustration, then he sighed: “Why are you making that move with your chin? What are you looking at? I am explaining to you that…”.

So, at that point, Rose rolled her eyes and with both her hands positioned to the sided of his head, urged Finn to turn towards the thing she had already noticed. When Finn finally looked outside of the window, his gaze immediately reached for the point Rose was aiming at.

A white sheet was fluttering up above a three. It was their sheet, the one that he had put on Leia’s body just a few hours before. And that could only mean one thing: they were not too far away from the object of their desire.

……………………………………………….

As they imagined, the white sheet brought them to an untarmacked road, where they finally found the tracks of the wheelchair. Following the furrows on the ground, the sight of what they found, let them both completely stunned. Han from Bordighera lied unconscious on the ground at Leia’s side, their hands still tangled together, despite all the odds.

“Holy Shit!” Finn exclaimed “it can’t be!”. “Is he dead?” Rose asked then not knowing what else to think. To be sure, Finn touched the old man to feel the pulse, waiting for a long moment before to answer. Then, with a serious expression on his face, he made her a sign of assent. “Yes…he is dead….” he sighed then looking into Rose’s eyes. The young woman now looked even more desperate than before.

“Oh my God Finn! What are we gonna do now?” she asked in a very piercing voice. Finn looked at the two of them and then looked back in Rose’s direction, remaining silent for a second or two.

Then he swept away some sweat from his forehead and breathed out a very long breath. “At this point, one corpse, two corpse…What’s the difference? If we don’t find very quickly a solution, we are fucked up anyhow!” he said then looking to the brim of an emotional breakdown.

“What the hell was he doing here?” he complained then, saying out loud the same thing that even Rose was thinking about in that moment. “I don’t know…. But…Oh look at them Finn!” Rose exclaimed then with passion “they couldn’t stay far from each other during their whole life and now they are dead together! This is so romantic!”. At that, the young boy sighed in frustration.

“Oh my God Rose…Stop this madness and help me to bring him away from the street!” he said. So, after having put the white sheet upon Leia’s dead body once again, and after some big efforts and having spent a great amount of energy, the two of them somehow managed to drag Han’s body in a safer place, hiding it in the middle of a bush.

They were already about to take away even Leia’s body when suddenly Rose’s cell phone rang. She didn’t pay attention to it, in the beginning, but then it rang and rang and rang, and so in the end, she had to pick up.

“Hello?” she asked with her hearth hammering into her chest while Finn was looking at her in apprehension. Han’s body was lying on the ground only a few meters from them right now. For a very long moment they both hold on their breath. Then a very familiar voice erupted from the other side of the line and Rose let out a deep sigh of relief. “Peige…” she exclaimed with joy, then turning towards Finn, she whispered: “it’s just my sister!”. She smiled.

“I am sorry Paige, I can’t talk to you right now… I am busy…” Rose said then, already to the point to hang up, but then Finn could see Rose’s expression change in the blink of an eye, shifting from relieve to confusion and then into fear.

“Paige…Wait a sec… What do you mean with I have to go away and I don’t know if we’ll even see each other again. What’s up?” she screamed into her phone with an increasingly alarming tone.

“Why did you have to hide away? What do you mean with: Otherwise you are about to go to jail? What’s going on? PAIGE! PAAAAAIGE!!!” and now Rose was truly screaming like a mad woman. “Rose! Keep calm! Why are you screaming so loud, what happened?” Finn asked then full of concern.

“Oh shit! She hung up!” Rose simply replied not truly being able to pay him attention her hands now were shaking. “Rose! Please…Tell me what happened!” he said.

“I don’t know…My sister, I think she is in trouble but…” Rose looked completely stunned. “Yeah…” was Finn quick answer then “but I bet we are even in a biggest trouble then her right now…Hurry up and come here to help me, to bring Leia on…” He hadn’t even finished his sentence that, when they finally came back to the point where they had left Leia and the wheelchair, the clearing in front of their eyes was totally empty.

They tuned in every direction, with quick moves, but nothing. Leia and the chair had vanished.

“Oh my….Finn!” Rose yelled then looking at him anxiously. In that moment, Finn was as surprised and confused as her but he fought to remain calm once again. “Leia isn’t here anymore!” Rose realized with horror, sweeping away the sweat from her forehead while she was still panting for the effort to have moved Han’s inanimate body. “I see it! But…It can’t be…” he suddenly replied horrified too.

“Yeah…who could want to steal a dead woman?” Rose asked full of bewilderment not quite comprehending what could have happened. “No one! But maybe, he was thinking that he was stealing a statue!” he suddenly realized.

“Considering that the body was covered with a white sheet and you also put the sign fragile upon it… Oh my…it could have been anybody!!” Finn immediately answered gritting his teeth in anger and frustration.

“What do we do now?” the girl asked then with trepidation. “I don’t know….” Finn told her at that point, his voice sincerely tired and full of melancholy “Now I am afraid that we are definitively fucked up!”

……………………………………………

 

Rey was walking towards her home all alone under the sun of that hot day of September. A day that had started with her dreaming about her future family, and now was going to finish with her all alone, as ever, just when she had almost reached the happiness she had craved for so much time.

She didn’t even cared anymore about the jail or the punishment for her crimes. She knew that she was about to become a mother, but maybe, even that could have been a terrible error. Because Ben was totally right.

What kind of mother she could have ever been? She was a filthy criminal and nothing more. People like her didn’t deserve happiness. People like her maybe, didn’t deserve even a family.

Yes…Maybe, it would have been better to give the baby away… In order to be sure that he could have had the family he deserved. Rey knew even too well how much, being abandoned from your parents can be a burden.

What did they thought when they took the decision to became parents? Probably they were mad. People like them didn’t know a thing about rising a happy child…Neither of them had ever had something like a real, normal family… So, probably Neither of them would have being a good parent anyhow…

At that last thought, Rey had to restrain herself to avoid weeping again. In the end, she deserved that. Probably she had always had something wrong, and maybe her parents had been right to abandon her… All those thoughts were spinning into her mind, when the yellow van with Finn and Rose on board, appeared at the end of the street and reached for her at high speed.

They climbed down from the van very quickly and only then they both realized they were only a few meters from Rey’s house. The desperate young woman looked at them and so she asked: “So, did you find her?” she sniffed, her eyes still glistening with tears.

“No!” was Finn’s answer.

“Yes, we did!” was Rose’s one. They spoke at the same time. At that Rey looked at them in confusion, but before she could make any other question, Finn rushed to add: “We found her, but then we lost her!”. “How’s it possible?” Rey asked then with surprise.

“Someone stole her to us while we were not paying attention…It’s a long sotry…” Rose tried to explain. At that, Rey hadn’t any energy left to ask for the details, so she merely accepted the answer as it was, and said:

“Okay then…” she sighed “probably things had to go this way. It was destiny! I’ll give birth on my own in a jail!” she complained in a tragic tone.

“Oh, no, no, I don’t think so…” Rose urged to reply sounding full of hope for a while, “I mean…nowadays, prisons are overcrowded, it’s commonly known”. Only then Rey couldn’t restrain herself anymore and she started to cry again.

“STOP IT!” Finn screamed then, so loud that he scared the death out of them both.

“This won’t happen okay? We have to stay focused. Probably whoever stole the corpse now thinks he’s got only a statue… And so we still have a chance to…”

But right while he was talking, the white squadron of the Guardia di Fiananza, with Phasma and Hux above them all, surrounded them, reaching for Rey’s house. Five cars with the sirens on parked into the courtyard and then they climbed down with their weapons into the hands, aiming for Rey’s door. Without any hesitation and not asking for any permission, they entered the house all at once.

“Ehi! You can’t do that! This is my house! What’s happening?” Rey screamed there, not quite believing to her eyes, Finn and Rose standing still at her side.

“We came to catch La Vecchia!” Hux answered dryly not quite paying her attention if not to show her the paper that allowed him to do everything he wanted into her property.

“La Vecchia?” Rose asked then, now completely confused “the statue or granny?” “The Boss!” was Hux’s only answer before he definitively stopped to consider the three of them at all. When he turned towards his men he had an annoying wide smile plastered upon his face. “Phasma!” he barked “Be ready! We have finally got him!”.

………………………………….

General Snoke arrived just a few minutes later on board of his super luxurious blue limousine. Meanwhile the white squadron of troopers had encircled Rey’s whole house. “Luke de la Vecchia, you are under arrest! We are about to enter! You can’t do anything but surrender!” Hux barked in the direction of the habitation.

When no answer came, Hux’s men brutally burst into the house in front of a powerless Rey, Finn and Rose.

After the initial uproar, not a single sound came out for a long moment, until Phasma exclaimed “Boss! We got it! He’s hiding under a white sheet sitting on a chair in the middle of the living room”.

At that, both Rey and her friends were dripping down cold sweat. “It’s only a statue!” Rey said then in a very thin voice, trying to move closer to the entrance of her house and hoping that, somehow, they could have believed her on her word.

Of course, they wouldn’t have listened to her, but she had to try something. They didn’t have choice. When Hux ordered her to move away, Rey’s whole body was shaking in fear.

“Don’t mess with me, honey…” Hux addressed her then “I know you are probably involved in all of this. You helped a dangerous fugitive to hide in your house and for this reason you will pay a big price in the name of the justice…So now don’t worsen your already precarious position…Give yourself a favor and go away, let us do our job!”. Then he turned in Phasma’s direction: “I want you to arrest him! NOW! Put an end to this circus!” he ordered.

And so the tall woman was about to take away the white sheet from the fake-statue. Or to say it better, she was about to discover granny’s dead body in front of the whole team of the Guardia di Fiananza. They were doomed.

At that Finn whispered to Rose urgently:

“Do something! PLEASE! DO SOMETHING! NOW OR NEVER!!!”. The young woman looked back at him in confusion. “What I am supposed to do?” she whispered back. “I don’t know, try something! I beg you!” Finn insisted.

So Rose tried to extemporize faking a sudden illness. She comically brought her hands to her throat and said:

“Oh my God…I think I am not feeling well…I can’t breathe…Probably I am about to pass out…” she screamed a few moments before to collapse on the ground letting herself clumsily fall down. Unfortunately, nobody payed her any attention. Snoke, Hux, Phasma and all the other men were too concerned about the capture of Luke de la Vecchia.

And so her little attempt to buy some time went up in smoke. Rey’s hearth was hammering into her chest, so wild that maybe she was the one who truly would have passed out in that moment… Oh granny…Ben… I am so sorry… Please forgive me! She was thinking, so full of grief that she couldn’t avoid to collapse on her knees while Phasma finally took off the sheet from the chair.

Maybe this is right… Maybe I deserve all of this…Because what I did is truly horrible… I am terrible horrible human being… I am just sorry for the baby… Oh Ben… Ben… How could I will leave without you from now on? I just discovered how much wonderful you are… And now I will be alone once again… Oh… Ben… Please forgive me…

Rey cried. The tears in her eyes prevented her to say well what was in front of her. Until a voice raised above the cheating crowd.

“What the hell is this…thing?” Hux demanded sounding completely horrified. Only then Rey could sharpen her gaze enough to notice that what was lying under the white sheet, was indeed a true white statue, and in particular the statue of a woman.

She couldn’t believe at her eyes… Oh my God! What happened to granny? How? She asked to herself completely stunned and unprepared to the sight of the statue. She would have wanted to know herself what truly happened, but Hux had just made her a question, and he was impatiently waiting for her answer.

“It’s… It’s…The old woman with the pearl earring…A statue...” she breathed out sounding truly mesmerized.

“But she doesn’t look old!” was Phasma unexpected comment at that point. Both Hux and Rey then turned in her direction and looked at the tall woman in agitation.

“That’s because we restored it, it looks younger now…” was all Rey managed to invent to explain that odd incongruity. And so, she didn’t know how or why, but she was safe now. They were safe. Because there wasn’t any corpse there, and not a single sign of their crime seemed to be on sight. Finn, Rose and Rey both let out a deep breath of relief in the same moment. At least, for a while, they were no more in danger…

…………………………………………………………………

General Snoke was out of his mind. He had thought to have Luke de la Vecchia already into his grasp but all his subordinate had truly been able to do, was to create an incredible mess that lead to a colossal misunderstanding.

La Vecchia was still hiding somewhere, probably far away from them, at that point, while the special troops of the white squadron hadn’t been able to match Ben Solo’s black squadron, even this time.

“Hux!” general Snoke called then “My disappointment in your performance cannot be overstated! You are only a rabid cur! Tell to your men to pull back! Now! It’s so embarrassing…” he barked in the direction of the ginger, his cold gaze full of disappointment. Hux now was totally covered in a cool sweat.

He swallowed then and following Snoke that was walking away from Rey’s courtyeard, he said: “But…General…I mean…Dad, please… You can’t reprimand me this way in front of the other men of the squadron… Dad! Wait!” he rushed towards him in a whiny tone that would have made Rey sincerely laugh, if she wouldn’t have been so tired and so confused… Instead, she truly needed to rest for a while.

“I am sorry… I am not feeling well…Please, go away!” Rey discharged herself from the last of the men that now were slowly leaving from her dining room.

When the door had been closed at her back, once and for all, and she found herself alone, she reached for her bathroom and she throw up a couple of times. Then she washed her face with cold water in order to recompose herself. Too many emotions for a single day. Too much stress and more than anything, too much fear.

Calm down Rey! There has to be a reason for the events of the last minutes! Even if you don’t understand a thing anymore, there has to be….a reason… She was telling to herself.

In that same moment, she heard a noise coming from the other side of the corridor and so she walked towards the room that once had been her granny’s bedroom.

When she looked inside, she realized with incredulity that her beloved Leia was lying down on the bed, and looking at her in that way, it was as if she was truly asleep. Her body didn’t look so frozen anymore and the expression on her face, almost seemed happy and peaceful. In that moment, Rey let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding on.

Only then she turned towards the left side of the room and saw the tall figure that was waiting for her in silence. His dark hair were even messier than usual but black eyes were the same she had learnt to love in the last few months. Those puppy pools had probably cried as much as she had, because they were puffy and red as much as she had never seen them before. Ben looked at her with grief and resolution at the same time.

“You did it!” Rey exclaimed then. Realization hitting her brain all at once.

“You exchanged granny’s body with that statue!”.

While she spoke, the stupor in her voice was even so big that her mouth remained wide open while she stared at him in bewilderment. And for the fraction of a second, Rey’s hearth stopped to ache, because she almost forgot about the fact that she had just left her….Because Ben was there right now.

He had always been there for her. The man sighed heavily while their eyes met once again, then he said: “Yes…I did it…For you “ he whispered. “Now I am technically an accessory of your crime…” and his voice was quiet and sad. Nothing like the harsh tone he used only a few minutes before when they broke up.

“Oh Ben, this is a wonderful thing…thank you!” she immediately replied not really knowing what to say.

“No, to be honest this is truly awful” he retorted shifting his gaze to look at the dead body on the bed, then coming back to look into her hazel eyes, only to remain silent. “So, are you trying to say that between us is not over?” Rey asked then full of hope, her hearth hammering faster and faster into her chest. Ben Solo was about to answer when, outside a great noise invaded the courtyard.

Some people were screaming in happiness, and he could immediately recognize Poe Dameron’s accent above them all. “We caught him! Boss! We caught him!!!” he was yelling with joy.

At that, both Rey and Ben rushed outside to meet the black squadron at complete, that now was triumphant and jubilant as ever. Finn and Rose were still there.

Not knowing what to do anymore, the had chosen to wait for her to recompose herself for a while. In the same moment, in a police car parked just outside of the courtyard, Luke de la Vecchia, was kept into restraints, the gray untamed beard making him look as an old hermit. In the same moment Rose caught the sight of him, she started to scream.

“OH MY GOD! But he is my sister Paige’s old boyfriend!” she said, only to notice, after a few moment that her sister had in fact been arrested too and now she was sharing the car with La Vecchia.

“PAIGE!!” Rose yelled then with horror reaching for the car. But then Poe, Snap and Jessika blocked her with energy.

“Ehy, what are you doing miss? This is a dangerous man, you know? He murdered more than 30 people and that girl is his accessory…You shoudn’t stay here!” Jessika said trying to shoo her away. “But she is my sister!” Rose suddenly retorted. “Oh my God! I didn’t know about this, I swear!”.

“Hy Rose! I am sorry! I should have told you before that my beloved had a little secret…” Paige said then from the inside of the car, talking through the glass.

“But you know....I love him so much! I assure you that he is a good person! Don’t believe to them, they are the bad guys!”. At that Finn’s jaw fell down on the ground while Rose passed out, this time for real, and Finn had to help her to regain consciousness. When things finally seemed to calm down, the whole squadron was finally ready to take Luke to jail.

But just when Poe Dameron was about to dismiss from his boss saying that he was happy that, finally, he would have obtained the promotion he had dreamed about for so long, Hux’s troupers came back in a rush, parking their cars in front of the house.

This time, they weren’t alone. The usual journalists that general Hux payed for those occasions had followed them, ready to filming the reportage. In the blink of an eye, Snoke declared to them all that Hux had been the one to capture the long lost boss of the Sacra Corona Unita.

And so, once again, Ben Solo had made the whole hard work, while the red head had stolen his reward. “I am sorry boss…” Poe sighed then looking directly into the eyes of Ben Solo.

“This is really unfair”.

“Yes, I know…” Ben commented then tiredly. “But I want to thank you guys, anyway…I should have had expected this dirty trike from Snoke…Maybe It’s time for me to accept the hard truth that this is not a meritocratic world…” he sighed.

……………………………………………………

When the whole group of the Guardia di Finanza, finally left Rey’s house, once and for all, with Luke de la Vecchia and Paige under arrest, even Finn and Rose had to go away, and so Marshall Ben Solo and Rey remained alone with not a single noise around them apart the one that came from their hammering, tormented hearths.

“Ben…I am sorry… I am truly sorry….” She said looking at his face. And then she urged to hug him and he hugged her back without a single hesitation.

“It’s all right sweetheart…I forgive you!” he said then breathing into her brown hair and making her shiver thanks to the how breath she felt on her neck.

“Oh Ben…I… I don’t know what to say…It’s just…I don’t understand…You….You left me…and now…” she spoke in agitation, leaving his warm embrace only to look at him once again into his eyes.

“There is nothing to understand… Between us it was over less than 74 minutes and 35 seconds, and I already wanted to die” he confessed holding her against his chest even more tight. “Then someone told me that Hux was coming to your house, and so I thought that I couldn’t allow that rabid cur to arrest you…Because” he paused for a while… “Because I understood…That I love you too much to let you go!” he concluded.

And so Rey hugged him tightly while her hearth came back beating with joy and happiness into her soul. “I swear Ben! No more crimes! Not ever!” she said hugging him with all of her strength “I am going to call the doctor…Immediately…And with granny it would be over sooner than you can imagine!” she started, but Ben blocked her almost immediately.

“No! You are not doing that!” he said.

“Why?” “Because the doctor will notice about the fact that you put her into the freezer… We should wait a couple of days before…I’ll help you…” he explained.

They both reached for her home and they started to discuss about the next thing to do.

……………………………………

The day of the funeral, only a few people had reached the cemetery in order to listen to the priest before they lowered the coffin into the ground. After the celebration, a young pregnant woman, her friends and a very tall guy who was wearing the uniform of the Guardia di Finanza, started to slowly walk in the direction of their car, passing between the lines of graves that were encircling the main path.

“Hey guys…I feel really sad for Chewe…Did you looked at his face when they closed the coffin? He wanted to stay with Han…It’s been a real challenge to convince him that it was time to say goodbay…” Rose exclaimed then with tears into her eyes while she pulled the leash with all of her strength.

“It’s normal…They were best friend after all” was Finn’s only comment at that point. Meanwhile the old ball of fur, sadly followed the group of friends away from the place where his greatest friend would have rested in peace for the eternity. “I am so sorry for him…” Rey said then holding Ben’s hand tightly. “But, did you saw how wonderful those flowers were? He probably had someone who loved him very much…Maybe his sons or nephew..After all he had his own family in Bordighera…” she commented then, sweeping away one tear with a tissue.

“Yes…It’s been a very good funeral, after all… Considered that he died without any forewarning!” Rose added at that point. Somehow, this seemed to enlighten Finn’s mind that exclaimed:

“Oh…I wanted to remember you, that you should wait for the end of the month to let granny die, because we really need that last salary!” he urged. At that, both Rey and Ben turned back in his direction and stopped to walk.

“Last salary?” he demanded a little stunned. “Yes…Because, you know, without my granny’s retirement I have to close my activity. Didn’t you remember?” Rey simply explained then.

When Marshall Ben Solo, remained silent once again, looking at them both completely horrified, they suddenly knew that something was wrong. “Ben? It’s everything all right?” she asked.

“Yes…I mean, No…It can’t be!” he complained then, finding once again his voice.

“The Government should give you the money you legitimately deserve! You can’t close your new business!”

“I know” Rey patiently answered then with a hint of disappointment into her voice “And you should have gained Hux’s place as new commander, the promotion you deserved for the capture of Luke de la Vecchia, the buss the YOU and YOUR black squadron managed to find! It was YOU the one who truly deserved that place, but, you know how things works in this country…”

“But…my salary is only about 1.400 euro in a month…” Ben suddenly realized. “How can we rise our child only with that money?”. “Yes, I read on the newspaper that a baby costs around 700 euro for a month” Rose stepped in then, without any mercy for Ben’s and Rey’s already desperate situation.

“Well, I can find a new job and…” Rey started but, Rose stopped her immediately with her next comment.

“Yes, because there is plenty of people who wants to hire a pregnant woman nowdays…” she said. And yes, that couldn’t have been more true, Rey thought, desperately.

“Well, but…To rise a child you only need to love him…We know it even too well, isn’t it Rey?” Ben suddenly retorted at that point.

“Hahahaha” Finn laughed then in amusement

“Of course it’s not enough!”

“You mean that if you’ll love him enough, he won’t care about the tasteless food you’ll give him because you are too cheap to buy something better, or he won’t care about the shoes too tight when you won’t be able to buy him a new ones…” he started to say in order to convince Ben that, to be happy even the money are important. “He’s right” Rose supported Finn’s theory with no hesitation.

At that Ben’s panic started to increase exponentially. Until that moment, he had truly hoped to obtain that promotion, in order to provide more money to his new family, but now everything seemed to crumple under his feet.

“No, no, no! Rey you HAVE to prosecute with your business! We can’t afford this loss right now!” he said vehemently, stopping to walk and looking directly into her eyes with desperation.

“How? Every month the bank takes me away every money that I earn…” she complained.

“That’s why we chose to put granny into the freezer!” Finn urged to add at that point, sounding a little like a true smartass.

“Guys! We can’t put granny into the freezer again! I swear! No more criminal things!” Rey yelled then a them, turning in the direction of Finn and Rose “And anyhow we already defrost her twice…” The two friends looked into each other eyes for a long moment, in silence…But just when Finn seem to the point to say something to convince her to change her mind, unexpectedly it was Ben the one who said:

“Yes, but…it’s not that we have to eat her…” In that moment Rey looked at him with incredulity and mystification.

“So, are you with us?” she demanded then with her eyes glistening with hope. Ben, realized the implication of his last statement, started to walk away from them all, taking some long strides in the direction of the car.

“I never said so” “Yeah, neither I” Rey urged to say. “Who said so?” Finn asked then.

“Nobody! We were just talking out loud!” Ben commented then, aiming for the pilot seat, while Rose opened the back door and helped Chewe to accommodate on the van.

“Okay then…we’ll do it…For our son!” Rey suddenly decided seating next to Ben on the van. In that same moment, he turned in her direction with wide eyes and an horrified expression plastered upon his face.

“Rey!… I understand but… We can’t reason this way…Otherwise we are like the others…” he explained, finally igniting the engine, after that Finn and Rose had already took a seat on the back, next to Chewe…

“Yes but…How do the others do?” Rey asked then. Anxiety rising into her voice.

“I don’t know…I don’t care… We can’t…” Ben continued at that point, feeling speechless.

“Yes, but we are ONLY talking right now…” Rey insisted.

“Oh no… Please, don’t tell me you just said Only…”

“Yes…she said so…” Rose pointed out…

 

And from the moment the car leaved the graveyard, they were still discussing…

 

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the end!  
> Considering that, in the beginning I thought I would have compleated this story in only a few days....It's been a long path.... XD 
> 
> I am going to edit the story as soon as I can, because I know for sure that there is plenty of errors.... THANK YOU if you read this! 
> 
> I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! :*

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked the story. THIS IS A ROMANTIC STUPID COMEDY, with a little shadow of darkness in it. Hugs :*


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